Rush and Erik
by reddraconi
Summary: The story of a young man who finds out that his past is a fabrication along with an interesting scientific experiment.
1. 1: Healthy Exercise (Running From Hell)

This document has been and is developed in VIm using the inconsolata font along

with the wonderful Solarized theme in Windows 8.1.

The solarized theme-for a multitude of applications including Vim, Sublime Text

2, and even Visual Studio-can be found at /solarized.

Thanks for spending your precious time reading my handiwork!

- Reddraconi

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## CHAPTER ONE : Healthy Exercise OR Running From Hell ##

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"Shit, shit, shit, shit, damn, shit, shit, damn, damn, damn..." he panted under

labored breath. A slightly-smaller-than-average human was sprinting through an

abandoned underground bunker, with a powerful suspicion that someone - or

something - was also interested in what he had found. The intelligence he

received from the scribes said there were no inhabitants as the bunker had been

sealed for nearly one hundred-fifty years. It was clearly incorrect. Erik

thought to himself. "Damn mainframes, their security's such a joke, even a

deathclaw could take a swipe at it." He made a mental note to laugh at that

later.

His trench coat fluttered behind him as he threw himself around a corner and

raced into a nearby storage closet, his worn boots echoing through the hall.

Sighing a low "damnit," he silently slid to the floor into an Indian-style

sitting position and began fiddling with his Pip-Boy 3000. He hurriedly pressed

the buttons, trying to get some sort of communication out to his team, or in the

worst case, leave a message for some other unlucky scavenger to find. Someone

had to know about what he'd found. The first was unlikely as he was currently

five levels underground in a metal-lined sarcophagus.

"This is Erik, trying to reach Delta two, Delta two please copy!" There was

nothing more than a bit of static and the hum of distant machinery to offer him

a response. He tried again. "Delta two ... damnit Jenkins if you're beating off

to a pinup instead of doing your radio duty again, I'll kill you dead! Look,

I've found a lab down on level five..." He stopped his message abruptly as the

heavy footsteps he'd been avoiding were getting closer.

As Erik pulled out his weathered 10mm pistol and checked its clip, his Pip-Boy

began to squawk. "Erik, th...s is Del... s...ion ...o, what's ... twenty?

Repeat, whas... your t..." Erik panicked and placed his hand over his Pip-Boy in

a feeble attempt to silence it. Whatever was out there was dangerously close as

the heavy, labored footsteps had halted outside of his door. A new overwhelming

scent that clashed with the stale air and rusty metal - a mixture of sour

leather, sweat, blood, rotting flesh - appeared with a squishy ***THUD* **and was

gagging Erik with his every breath. It was revoltingly overwhelming. He held his

breath for a few precious moments, waiting and wishing for whatever it was to

leave him alive.

After nearly half an hour of putting a strangle-hold on his 10mm while sitting

behind a storage crate, surrounded by cleaning supplies and excessive amounts of

dirt and dust due to decades of neglect in the storage closet, whatever had been

following him finally decided that Erik wasn't worth the trouble; its heavy

footsteps sounded as if their owner were heading back around the corner and down

the long, dusty hallway. Erik wished the new, god-awful smell that was burning

his eyes would have left with the heavy footsteps.

With a half-hearted sigh of relief, Erik tried to contact the brotherhood

detachment again. "Delta two, this is surveyor Erik. Please respond." He paused

for a response then retransmitted, "Delta two, this is Erik, for the love of a

nuclear winter, please copy." Again, silence and a smattering of static were his

response. He hung his head, and put his Pip-Boy into record mode.

"Recording 003:

This is surveyor Erik Rade of the Brotherhood of Steel - Southern US Chapter.

Serial number 4217. If anyone finds me, or this message, please bring it to

the nearest Brotherhood of Steel detachment. If I'm dead, grab my dog-tags

too, it'll help to convince the commanding officers that you're not insane.

What I'm going to tell you is of the utmost urgency.

We'd thought the remnents of the Master's army had been defeated...

Well, we were wrong again. Surprise! This isn't about the Master or his army

of god-awful greenskins, this is something else - more human

experimentation, but this time it's different. The lead military scientist

from Mariposa, Robert Anderson, had this team of scientists working on a side

project that has been accelerated by the FEV. Rather than forcibly evolving

humans like the Mariposa facility, this team was focused on mixing the human

genome with ... something else. Whatever they are, they're damn smarter than

those greenskins. For all I know, that's where these scientists disappeared

to ... maybe they weren't all destroyed by the Colonel. Maybe they became

test subjects as well. I don't really know. The mainframe's pretty busted,

all I got was bits and pieces.

There's plenty of tech down here too, I think a lot of it could be put to use

in the wasteland: water purification, advanced radiation resistant plants,

laser-based weaponry, and lots of complicated science-y things down here that

I can't explain but probably need to be put to use anyway.

***sigh***

I know that I said it was abandoned here, and I hope like hell I'm wrong, but

I'm positive I'm being hunted by something down here. Something much smarter

than it should be.

Surveyor Erik out."

After completing his dialog, he pressed the "stop" button on his Pip-Boy and

saved it. He checked his pistol's clip again - a nervous habit - and activated

the door to make his way out of the storage closet.

"FUCK!" Erik shouted, falling down and scrambling backward, slamming his back on

a metal storage shelf, knocking down ancient cleaning supplies and more dust. As

the rusty pneumatic steel door had slid open, a bloody mess surprised Erik near

the threshold of the door. Was this an offering or a horrible sign of his

future? It definitely explained why the smell didn't leave with the footsteps,

as he was now crying from the awful stench. The bloody mess appeared to have

previously been a mole rat or some other large dog-sized critter. Whatever it

was, its head was caved in, its innards flowed out of long, jagged gashes on its

underbelly, its remaining fluids were beginning to pool around it. "Who the hell

kills something then just leaves it lying around?" Upon closer inspection, Erik

supposed the damage done to the underbelly could have been done by claws. Erik

shook his head and stepped over the body of the deceased critter and began to

look around for an exit to get the hell out of this claustrophobic place. I sure

hope there's not deathclaws down here...

"Even if it was a deathclaw, was it just tired of carrying the carcass...or

marking the storage closet for some reason? Who knows what in the hell's down

here, or how it thinks? There must be another exit around here somewhere." Erik

shook his head as if to rid himself of the smell and bad thoughts. "Gotta get

back to the surface, where the hell am I now?" Unfortunately, the intel he'd

gotten from his commander, as well as what little data he was able to scrape

from the failing mainframe did not include much of a map of the facility, nor

was the power particularly reliable. In fact, he was fairly sure that the

mainframe was infected by a prewar virus. Damn thing's probably floating around

in my Pip-Boy somewhere...the scribes'll be pissed. Maybe. They're weird.

Regardless, shitty intelligence once again got him into another awful

predicament. He was only supposed to make a cursory investigation of the two

subterranean floors to see if the Brotherhood could use this bunker - a prewar

military facility - as another medical and storage facility. They'd already

decided that the two above-ground floors would a great defensive position. It

seemed that not much else of the old Naval base was of use. Unfortunately,

seeing as how his scouting mission wasn't complete, the base was to remain

abandoned. The Brotherhood's numbers had been steadily growing since the attacks

from the Master's army began eons ago. Despite the historically flaky

information he had, the damn cargo elevator he instructed to find had decided to

ignore his request for floor two and went all the way down to basement floor

five, all while locking the doors and wailing a siren. He didn't even know until

then that there was five floors! If there was anything alive in the bunker, it

certainly knew this shrieking box had a hot meal or something that needed some

lead forcefully inserted into it. Thankfully, he had his trusty crowbar handy to

pry his way out and "persuade" the elevator to stop it's wailing. Failing that,

he had his dad's old 10mm pistol. It wasn't good for much but it sure did put a

hell of a hole in radroaches and mole rats.

Well, he thought, there was no sense in dwelling on the past any longer; he was

fairly sure he was heading in the right direction. At least it was a _better_

direction. As he slowly made his way North from the storage closet, the air

began to clear and the electricity seemed to be be a bit more stable here,

causing the lights to flicker less. He pulled up the map on his Pip-Boy, but

quickly began scowling at it.

"Pip-Boy error 0x503: - FILE CORRUPTED, UNAVAILABLE. Please contact your

administrator for further assistance."

He shook his head again and sighed, "Damn thing hasn't had a proper

administrator in at least a hundred years," he thought to himself. Well, as they

say, there was no use in crying over spilled Brahmin milk. He put his Pip- Boy's

map module into record mode and let it generate a new map for him as he walked.

"Guess North should be okay, anything's gotta be better than that horrible blood

-bath and whatever else was behind me."

After walking about thirty yards, Erik saw a few doors. Both they and their

surroundings were covered in blood, just like the entrance to the storage room.

Actually, now that he had walked closer, he noticed these stains were much

older, the blood had oxidized and turned brown long ago. Curiously, the blood

stains appeared to be due to execution-style gunshots, not an animal bleeding

out. As Erik moved closer to the doors, he involuntarily shuddered thinking,

"Poor bastards - probably some scientist doing the government's bidding, only

to die due to another one of their cover-ups."

He stopped in front of the nearest metal door to his left, its placard read

"Storage 1". Stepping up on his toes to get a better view, Erik peered through

the dusty security glass mounted in the door to decide if he wanted to go in or

not. After supposing that anything in there must have died at least a century

ago, he tried the handle. It was locked. "Oh, good grief" he muttered while

digging in his pockets for a bobby pin. After successfully locating one and

twisting it into the lock, it took him a good five minutes, but he finally got

the tumblers out of the way and the knob turned with a loud, rusty creak. Erik

stepped into another room, full of dust, dirt, and neglect. Oh, and boxes.

Loads and gobs of boxes. He rifled through them one-by-one, hoping to find

anything of use. Unfortunately, these were full of scientific papers and

research far above his understanding. Something about genetic mutations, DNA/RNA

combinatorics, and transhumanitic mutations that he assumed lead to the creation

of the disasters he read about earlier that day. He also was lucky enough to

find some holodisks, their labels all faded badly. Out of the four he located,

only one was in proper working order. He tossed the others into his bag for the

scribes and placed the fourth into his Pip-Boy. "Maybe the fourth time's the

charm..." As his Pip-Boy spun up the last holodisk with a ***whirr***, it

immediately began to flash a warning message:

"## WARNING ##

Contained herein is CLASSIFIED United States Government (USG) information.

If you have accidentally placed this storage medium into your Pip-Boy or

terminal, please remove both this storage medium and the device you placed it

into from this area, then relinquish those and yourself to the nearest

military base pending an official investigation. Failure to do so will result

in punishment by death.

Additionally, misuse or unauthorized communication of this information will

be punishable by death. Furthermore, by accessing this holotape, you agree to

rescind all ownership of your brain, memories, DNA, and reproductive rights

under Section 503 of the Canadian Annex and Social Reform of 2072.

Please see the User Agreement for further details."

"Hah! Finally some good stuff." Erik was pleased, as these were always the best

holotapes to find in places like this. They always had some sort of secrets or

cool projects that were underway, long, long ago.

"This is John Hawthorne, lead scientist of Naval Station Magnolia. Project

lead on project Maia. This report six in a series of seven.

My team has been largely unsuccessful in finding the catalyst we need to

trigger the subject's DNA to split and recombine with those nucleotides

introduced from indigenous species. We're missing something simple ...

perhaps the HR event is in the incorrect area to trigger a lesion bypass,

or perhaps humans weren't meant to go back millions of years and go back to

having claws and fur...

Regardless, Anderson is scheduled to stop by later this week and bring me

some more FEV samples. The only thing he could tell me is that 'This is

what will make us the top of the food chain again'. I don't know about

that, I don't think Anderson knows what E. Coli is. These projects may very

well make us stronger than our opponents, but I sincerely hope that we

won't lose our humanity in the process.

*** Hawthorne laughs hollowly ***

I'm trying to splice _Ursus americanus_ and _Canis Iatrans_ into the human

genome. Hopefully we can get this awful work done quickly and without much

suffering on behalf of our subjects.

*** A pained wail is heard in the background. Hawthorne sighs deeply ***

Some of these poor folks look like werewolves with a serious case of mange

... and dear God do they smell rough. It seems that we have at least got

the hormone production to work. Now, we just have to figure out how to mask

the scent, else the commies will smell us coming long before they see us.

As per regulation, our results are both in digital and analog format.

Currently our test results are in storage areas one and two on sub-floor

five, as well as storage area three on floor four. Provided the lazy-ass

maintenance workers around here have bothered to fixed the leaks down

there.

Next report in nine days, as scheduled.

Hawthorne signing off.

*** static and distant humming on the tape, fading out ***"

"Wait, what? That can't be right. Anderson was working on the greenskins over in

California, but no one ever said anything about this," Erik thought. "So,

that's what all of this paperwork's about..." He began to dig deeper into the

paperwork, but was unable to find anything of further use. Not that it would

matter, there's no way he would be able to decipher it anyway. Erik's Pip-Boy

was speaking again, surprising him, as he thought that was the end of the tape.

A hurried Hawthorne was on it again, but his speech was being drown out by

gunfire and screams, there was only a bit that was decipherable.

"

*** heavy panting, and quick whispers ***

This's Hawthorne, they're killing us. Scientists're dead. They're covering

everything up, left samples on five, locked down the lab down there. They

can live. They can live. They'll live. Live. Must survive. Future. Penny'll

make sure of it.

*** more panting, running, and muffled, gruff, angry voices ***

Where is he?! Hawthorne, you bastard! Get out here and take your punishment!

*** muffled heavy breathing, followed by a door slamming and someone running ***

GET HIM!

*** wind and more running, erratic foot steps ***

*** gun fire from a fully-automatic weapon, followed by the crash of a**

**Pip-Boy on a cold, metal floor, the heavy thud of a body, and low moans ***

They...must...survive...

*** another gunshot, this time from a pistol, followed by a moment of**

**silence ***

Take that, you son-of-a-bitch.

*** muffled official voices with trailing footsteps* *static and the hum of**

**distant machines, clicking of computers and finally, silence * "**

Erik's Pip-Boy reverted to it's normally-silent state. "Well, shit," Erik

thought aloud. Someone wasn't happy with what happened here, but why was it

worse than the FEV experiments that Anderson was conducting? Surely it wasn't

because the use of human test subjects, he'd seen some of the old footage from

the Mariposa base. The work they were doing was absolutely disgusting. People

stopped being people and were becoming super soldiers - much stronger, but they

lost their humanity - and minds - in the process. Erik continued to

contemplate the previous message while rummaging around for more information.

After another ten minutes of this, he gave up and decided to see what was in the

third door, across the hall. He took the time to make a note in his Pip- Boy to

investigate the lab at a later date. He'd initially tried that morning, but it

was under some sort of computer-initiated biological lock down and would only

open for that Dr. Hawthorne guy. From the sounds of the holotape, he wasn't

going to get it open any time soon.

As he crossed the hall, he noticed that the placard by the door read "Security."

Erik chuckled as he opened the unlocked door. Looks like security wasn't doing

their job. "Figures." The lights were out in this room. Before turning on his

Pip-Boy's light, Erik noticed that a few of the RobCo terminals were still

running! "Sweet, time to do so more rummaging," Erik thought to himself as he

enabled his Pip-Boy's light and made his way across the file-littered floor and

overturned desks to find one of the two active terminals.

"Let's see what you have to say" Erik cooed to the terminal. The terminal

certainly didn't reply. Not because it couldn't speak, but because it was still

locked by the previous user.

"ROBCO INDUSTRIES UNFIED OPERATING SYSTEM COPYRIGHT 2075-2077 ROBCO

INDUSTRIES

- Security Terminal 2 -

Terminal locked - 38350 days. User JH please resubmit your credentials:

_"

Erik sat at the blinking prompt, deciding on whether to hack it or move on. He

pulled out a bottle cap and flipped it: Nuka side up: time to hack. Erik

rebooted the machine while holding the F1 key, hoping that it would dump the

RAM's contents to disk like the scribes said it would.

After the terminal finished it's self-check it was time to get to work.

"Alright first thing's first, time to rewrite the password files." Erik began

his routine that would let him into the operating system of the terminal, hoping

to glean some more important information, or at the least who ordered the

destruction of this facility and it's members. "Okay, let's see what's left on

the local disk. Hrm, old inter-office message, a few pictures, hmph." "Not much

around," he thought. "Let's see what was in that RAM dump." Erik decompiled the

RAM dump to the terminal's screen and at first, wasn't surprised; it was a

deleted message.

"John, Ji|n he|0#.

Haven't heard from v/our team in some +ime, Anderson want's a re|oort 0f

project M ia - you're almost a week lat&. He's getti|\g antsy, but I |)on't

think he'll give you a|\v/ he t for it. Our army (-eneral ov&r here made

mention that your four-star there w s making some ``dras+ic" chang#s do(v)n

t#ere. I hope thev/ |)on't ax& your project. You've had some interesting

reports so far! +he l st I heard w s that y0u got +hem to c+ual|y grow

claws! |0eal, ac+ual (law5! Someone el$e said something about a heavy

increase in night-vision! Just thi|\k of the plat0on$, two kind$ of super

soldiers ready to |oro+ect Americ !

P.S. Jenny sav/s "#i". Sh& and I miss v/ou, +he kids mis$ their Uncle

Johnny." Mum's still d0ing we|l, proud of her 'twin scientists".

- Jim"

"Hmm," Erik gulped down a knot in his throat. Messages like these were always

touching, they always made Erik wish he had parents and a family of his own to

miss him. "Guess the Brotherhood'll always be mine." Erik dumped the message to

his Pip-Boy for later work. He left the first terminal and walked to the next

RobCo terminal. "Ugh...that's not good." Erik said, grimacing. The terminal's

keyboard looked as if something had bled out onto it ... none of the keys were

working. He looked at the screen, it was burned in with the message:

"Don't worry Johnny, they'll be fine. They're just as strong as their

father. I left you a package in the back.

- Penny"

"Haven't I already read that name today?" Erik made a mental note of the name

and decided that the destroyed terminal wasn't worth fighting. He instead

decided to rummage through the storage lockers here, if he was lucky there was

some beef jerky or ammo lying around. After three containers full of nothing but

dust and one crunchy porno, he was surprised to find some 10mm ammo and a

silencer for his pistol in the fourth. In the short time he needed to screw the

new silencer into his pistol, a four-foot long radroach had scuttled out of the

adjoining room, curious as to whom was invading his territory. Erik didn't

answer with his voice, but with his pistol's. Two rounds was enough to put the

giant roach down. "Well, dinner's up" Erik said, wiping his brow. Good thing he

found this silencer, or he'd have a terrible ringing in his ears right now.

"Right. Now, let's see if we can find that Penny lady's maps," Erik muttered

under his breath. After rummaging through the discarded boxes on the floor and

through the overturned desks without success, he decided to see if there was any

luck to be had from where the radroach had come from. Erik walked into the

adjoining room, finding a restroom, complete with a military-style shower and

leaky urinals. Oh! He hadn't had a shower, let alone a bath, in ages. Beyond

the *drip, drip, drip* of the urinals and the work it was doing on his bladder,

there was something else, a faint rustling noise. He poked around the restroom,

searching for the source of the noise. "Aha!" he exclaimed as he found a few

loose screws in an air intake near one of the stalls. "What do we have here?"

Erik unscrewed the loose screws by hand and pried the rest out with his trusty

crowbar. After finally getting the intake grill off, he was pleasantly surprised

by a stash of goods: two sealed packages of beef jerky, a pair of Nuka-Colas, a

Manila envelope complete with loose papers poking out of the top, and another

holotape.

The ***drip, drip*** behind him was making him grit and grind his teeth. He had

decided to put the stash on hold momentarily to relieve himself. He made his way

over one of the nearby urinals, undid his leather belt and relieved himself with

a long, shuddered sigh of relief. He shook off and packaged his equipment,

cinched his belt, and went back to the mysterious stash.

While digging through the stash, his mind began wandering to the long day he'd

had - fourteen hours so far. He hadn't had a bite to eat since breakfast, too

long since he bathed, too long since he had time to care of other _concerns_.

He sighed again and began digging through the stash again. "What have we here?"

he muttered as he grabbed the Manila folder and turned it upside-down. Three

documents and some prewar cash fell out. One of which was a photo of a woman,

probably in her late twenties. She was stunningly beautiful in her lab coat with

what he imagined was auburn hair in a bun and a pen in her mouth, clearly

thinking of something brilliant. It was signed in indelible ink: "To my Johnny,

3 Penny" and was finished with a lipstick kiss. "Oh, wow." Erik stared

longingly at her soft, warm face. Johnny was a damn lucky guy. After saving the

photo to his Pip-Boy, he folded up the hard copy and stuck it in his bag. After

day dreaming about the beautiful scientist momentarily, he continued his review

of the documents. One appeared to be nothing but columns of letters. Four

letters to be exact "A, T, C, and G" in varying patterns. "Must be a sequence of

some sort." He shook his head, unable to decipher the mystery, and saved them to

his Pip-Boy as well. Luckily, the last was a map - a map of the facility!

Smiling broadly, Erik scanned this last document with his Pip-Boy and let it

integrate the new data into it's previous map recordings.

Erik took the remaining documents, $100 in cash, as well as the snacks left

behind, shoved them into his bag and walked back into the previous room. "Well,

I guess now is as good a time as any to eat two-hundred year old food," he

through to himself as he grabbed an overturned chair and sat at an incredibly

dirty table. Swiping away some of the dust, he tossed his bag on the table and

pulled out the old bagged jerky and Nuka. He grunted while prying off the cap.

He smiled as he gulped down the flat radiation-laced drink and tore into the

jerky. He slowly gnawed on the awful beef, trying to enjoy every morsel of the

ancient meal. As he finished the last chunk of shriveled beef, he thought he

heard more sounds. These were whisper-y, breathy noises. Noises that other

living things make. Living things that aren't supposed to be here, and that

sound _much_ larger than his previous friend, the radroach.

He choked down the last of the Nuka-Cola and dropped under the heavy metal

table, straining his ears while readying his pistol. He wasn't sure if he was

hallucinating, but he could have sworn that something was breathing heavily,

nearly snarling, and at the same time. It was almost as if someone was

whispering. He hoped he was wrong. A familiar, terrible scent that wafted

through the slightly ajar door told him he wasn't.

Just as quickly as the new sounds and familiar smells came, they vanished. Erik

was again surrounded by nothing dust, debris, and silence punctuated with the

click and occasional hum of the old terminals. He involuntarily shivered. Was

that just his imagination? He thought he may have even seen some sort of yellow

lights just through the door and its frame.

Erik slowly shook his head and ran his right hand through his short, shaggy

brown hair. Surely he'd been hallucinating. Maybe it was the old Nuka? He sat at

the table, trying to decide what to do next. He fiddled with his Pip-Boy and

decided to load up the latest holodisk he found. At first, the disk didn't want

to spin up, but with a little persuasion and a liberal blowing on Erik's behalf,

it lurched with a dull ***whirr*** in his Pip-Boy.

"Hawthorne. Station Magnolia. This's report seven. I don't think there will be

any, uh, any...more.

I...I can't remember. What...what day it is. Fifty-four? No. Two thirty two.

No. Damnit. It doesn't matter.

The point is that, I'm out of. Subjects. And food. Food would be nice.

That's not the point though...I uh.

I figured it out. I got the sequence working, I think. ***panting*** But at great

... cost. I had to start testing. On me. The DNA sequence was a success, but

it required FEV as a catalyst. We'll have...something. Ugh.

***more panting and what sounds like someone retching, dry heaving***

There were, unforeseen side-effects from the Maia serum. The super soldiers

that...

***he pauses and grunts here***

Anderson wanted aren't coming from this experiment. I don't think my children

can ...

***pauses, pants and begins breathing shallowly***

handle the environmental radiation, let alone live in a normal society.

They're smarter than any typical human I know, show extreme capacity for...

empathy toward others, very intelligent, but too fragile. Maybe later.

They're much better than I ever could be.

*Hawthorne appears to be fading in-and-out of lucidity, accompanied with

heavy breathing, and the occasional dry-heave*

***Hawthorne inhales sharply, coughs roughly***

Damnit. I don't think I'm going to survive this last round of doses. Blood

pressure ... wrong. Can't ... brea ...

***A choking, gurgling gasp escapes Hawthorne followed by a dull thud, as if a**

**body collapsed, a wavering, gargling whisper of "Penny..." leaves his lips. A**

**period of silence follows***

***Scratching, as something or a couple of somethings amble across a concrete**

**floor, followed by a faint whimpering, rushed footsteps, and finally silence***

"

Erik's Pip-Boy spat out the holodisk as if it was a bitter medicine and refused

to re-run the disk. "Children?" Erik thought as he turned slowly turned the

holodisk over in his hands and stared blankly toward the entrance to the

Security room. "This is no place for kids. Surely they weren't experimenting on

children. Surely this Hawthorne guy wouldn't do that, not even Anderson would

stoop that low." After pausing for further reflection on the holodisk, he began

to wonder. What was that last thing? It sounded like a bunch of small mole rats

or something were near him ... but I haven't seen any of them down here either.

Maybe it was a dog or something? They're still thriving in the Wastes.

Although, he hadn't seen any kennels or, well, anything to point toward any

4dogs here. Erik sat silent for a few moments, then he remembered. "Maybe back

in the locked lab?"

Erik halted his thoughts as the hair on the back of his neck raised up to full

height. As he was staring through the ajar door, through to the metal door

across the hall when he noticed a quick, shadowy movement and the bright yellow

lights again. Then it hit him again. The smell. He was nearly nauseous, the

Nuka-Cola and old jerky were trying to make a reappearance as the adrenaline

from his survival response was kicking in. It turned out that the sounds he

heard earlier weren't a Nuka-induced hallucination. The damned thing, whatever

it was, had tracked him down again.

Erik threw on his pack, readied his 10mm, and slowly made his way back to the

door. As he stepped over littered papers and evidence boxes, he kept both hands

on his pistol, trying to steady his shaky grip. He slowly crept toward the steel

door. Each step he took felt like an eternity, but he eventually made it. He

turned his back to the nearby wall and peeked through the door. There was

nothing but dust in the hallway. No mole rats, radroaches, or yellow lights. He

let out a small sigh of relief, moved back into the room, and began to rack his

brain to sort out his next move.

"What to do, what to do" he worried to himself as he poked at his Pip-Boy. "Oh

yeah! That Penny lady's map." He pulled up the map interface and began to plan

his next move. It seemed that there were a few more storage rooms on this hall,

but the hall itself led into a very large, open cargo area with stairs and

another freight elevator at the far northeast corner. He decided he'd try his

luck with the stairs, given his previous run-ins with freight elevators today.

Erik made his way into the hall, peering both ways through the dust and

flickering lights. He slowly made his way past the other storage rooms, but

paused to look into them. There was no way in. The rooms looked as if they had

collapsed in on themselves. "Shame..." he though to himself. He sure would like

to find some more notes about his place or at the least some more supplies. The

hall seemed to go on forever. As he crept closer to the heavy metal doors that

led into the cargo area, he noticed the air smelled different. It was fresh,

clean, and a bit sweet. "Well that's odd" he thought to himself. It smells like

a fresh spring day, but I'm five stories underground..."

As Erik leaned on the heavy metal doors to the room listed as cargo storage on

his Pip-Boy, he was taken by surprise. It wasn't so much a cargo room as a

makeshift apartment complex made of cargo boxes, complete with a warm, strong

light. The storage room itself had to be at least three stories tall and easily

four-hundred yards long each way. Each cargo box, he figured, was arranged well

enough to house at least twenty or thirty small one- or two- bedroom apartments.

He naturally assumed these were homes as there were various clothes lines

running between them, complete with prewar dresses and such, still fluttering in

the artificial breeze. The nearest one even had a deck, complete with a coffee

table. As he walked to the nearest "apartment box", he kept an eye out for signs

of other life. He chuckled a bit to himself as he got closer, he realized the

home boxes were pretty colorful at one time, although their paint was now

peeling and rust was showing through. "Must've been for the scientists?" he

wondered as he was reaching for the door of a shipping container that was

previously Robin's Egg blue.

Erik opened the door on the south side of the container, releasing ages of dust

with a great rusty squeak. He coughed and sputtered as he accidentally inhaled

some. He peered into the darkness, the electricity to this container appeared to

be shut off. Instead of going in, he walked around back, looking for a breaker

to rectify the power problem. After poking around without success, he decided to

active his Pip-Boy's light and continue inside. The green light that radiated

from his Pip-Boy made shadows dance across the inside of the container. It

looked like it was quite nice at one time, complete with a couch, carpet, a

small kitchen, a work table, and a partition leading to a queen- sized bed. He

began by looking through the cabinets in the kitchen. Running for his life

always made him hungry. Unfortunately, all he could find in here were a few

boxes of Abraxo. He thought of opening the refrigerator, but if the apartment

hadn't had power in a long time, the food within would be an awful sight. He

decided to take a chance and take a peek. He slowly opened the heavy door to the

refrigerator while holing a sleeve over his mouth and nose. Inside he found

absolutely nothing aside from a six-pack of Nuka-Cola. "Sweet!" he exclaimed as

he reached inside and removed the cardboard container and its contents. After

popping the top on one, he put the rest in his bag, carefully wrapping them with

some of his dirty clothing.

Feeling energized by the slight radiation of the flat soda, he restarted his

search in the bedroom. "Hrm. Not much to speak of here." He searched all around

the apartment but was unable to find anything else of use. As he began to make

his way back through the entrance, a dim green light caught his eye. It was

behind the desk, near the entrance. Erik bent down to take a closer look. It was

a switch. A pretty nondescript one at that. He pressed it. Nothing happened. No

lights, no explosions, no shocks, not even a click or whirr. "Well that was

anti-climatic" Erik muttered dejectedly. He picked up his pack and left to

search another home. The one above this one with the deck was his target. Some

time ago, it must've been a beautiful emerald green, but was now mostly covered

in rust.

Erik left around the blue container and went up the stairs on the East side,

arriving at the wooden deck he saw when he came in. It was actually pretty nice

up here, as one could view the entire tiny settlement from the couch. He decided

to test that theory. After sitting on the dirtied, once-white couch, he

confirmed that one could indeed see the entire settlement. He noticed something

else too, there was a few bags of chips on the coffee table in front of him. He

thought it was a bit strange that someone would leave a bunch of snacks out, but

then again, this entire day had been a bit strange. Maybe someone was keeping an

eye out for him? Surely it wasn't whatever had left that carcass for him this

morning. He _had_ been hungry all day, but that would just be weird. Who leaves

carcasses and chips and Nuka lying around? He nabbed them as he walked inside.

He shook his head, clearing his mind and walked in the door leading from the

deck. The layout was pretty similar to the apartment below: one bedroom, a

kitchenette, a work area, and a restroom. This one, however was much more of a

home than the other. There were photos hanging from the walls of various people,

all smiling in white lab coats. Some even had pocket protectors. Erik noticed

there was a few people that kept reappearing in all of the photos. Upon closer

inspection, he noticed one of them. It was that beautiful lady scientist, Penny.

There was another scientist with her in nearly all of them - an older man,

probably a good fifteen years older. He had thinning blond hair, parted over and

to the left in a futile attempt to hide his growing bald spot. They both seemed

very happy. "I'll bet that was Hawthorne."

After surveying the snapshots of times long past, he decided to dig around for

anything useful. He moved toward the desk, which happened to be covered by

stacks of papers and envelopes. As he sifted through them, he noticed a pattern:

they were all survivor subjects that had failed Anderson's tests in DC. These

must've been the subjects that Hawthorne was talking about..." It seems that

they were mostly from the concentration camps located around the US as well as

other war criminals and even members of their own Army! As best as he

could guess, Erik supposed that they had failed to respond properly to the FEV

treatments. Maybe they were immune? That's as far as he got. As he was sifting

for further information, that all-too-familiar, thick, musky, scent came through

again. Erik froze in his tracks. He knew there was something behind him. It was

so close, he thought he could reach out and touch it ... or shoot it. He opted

to try for the latter.


	2. 2: A Wild Creature Appears

################################################################################

## CHAPTER TWO : A Wild Creature Appears or How Do I Pokeball? ##

################################################################################

As he spun around and drew his 10mm from it's holster on his chest, Erik stared

the awful- smelling thing in its face. It's glowing yellow eyes put him in a

trance of sorts. He couldn't move, could barely think, he couldn't even pull the

trigger. It was almost like he didn't want to. In fact, he suddenly had no urge

to harm the thing, but to love it and care for it. "Wait, what?!" he thought in

alarm. "The hell is wrong with me?!" The being, nearly 8 feet tall, loomed over

Erik's small frame, breathing heavily through its...snout? Not only was it tall,

but it was well built for something of it's stature. Erik figured it had to

weigh a good three hundred pounds. Three hundred pounds of thick muscle, sinew,

and bone. It was covered in a shaggy, coffee-colored fur that if the smell was

any indication, was in sore need of a bath. It didn't appear to wear any sort of

garments, nor did it have any weapons. Well, aside from large claws protruding

from its digits. Of which there were five or so. Erik always had trouble

counting when he was staring down death.

Erik wavered momentarily and slowly lowered his pistol from the thing's face.

He'd been staring at it for a solid ten minutes - if it had plans to kill and

eat him, it could've easily done so by now. The being began to look Erik over

with a strong curiosity. It was tilting and turning its head, as if trying to

make sense of the alien creature in front of it. Erik holstered his pistol and

began to take off his pack. He kept his eyes on the giant, kept one hand on his

crowbar hanging from his belt, and began to feel through his pack with the

other. "Where is it?" he thought. After a few more moments of digging around, he

found what he was looking for: the jerky. Maybe feeding it would distract it or

at least be a peace treaty. Hopefully it was that smart.

With a trembling hand, Erik held out a piece of jerky to the beast. It

gracefully bent down to sniff the offering, then took it with clawed fingers and

bit off a large chunk. Erik was pleasantly surprised that he still had his hand,

let alone the fact that the beast was so well mannered. He had a realization.

This must be one of Hawthorne's "children". It looked scary as hell, built like

a tank, but astonishingly gentle; certainly not the war- mongering type. Erik

dug for and handed out another piece of the jerky to the being. It gingerly

accepted it without question, but with silence and a look of appreciation on its

face. Erik looked in his bag, "two pieces left. What now?" He looked it in the

face and handed it the last of his jerky. "This's all I've got left, uh ...

dude." The thing took one piece and pushed the other back toward Erik. It slowly

gnawed on the remainder beef, Erik joined in. After all why not? He _was_ still

hungry and still _not_ dead.

This was by far the most bizarre thing that Erik had ever been through. He'd

fought through abandoned Vaults for precious tech, battled slavers, jet-heads,

ghouls, seen radroaches bigger than most prewar cars, fire-breathing ants, and

even watched as a man jacked up on psycho tried to eat a super mutant's face.

Of course, the super mutant snapped said man in half. Literally. To Erik, after

all of the strange and tough things he'd become accustomed to, he found this odd

combination of fearsome creature and gentlemanly behavior bizarre.

After he finished the last of his jerky, he decided that he needed to quench a

thirst for knowledge. "Have you been following me today?" Erik questioned the

beast. It stared at him for a minute and opened its mouth as if to speak. It let

out a howl that make Erik jump backward in fear. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit"

he whispered quietly to himself. Erik's hand automatically reached for his 10mm

again, but the beast grabbed him by the wrist and halted him. They stared at

each other for a minute in this pose, after which the beast released Erik. It

tried to vocalize again. This time it was more of a howl that tapered off into

something like a short bark. It reminded Erik of some old cartoon called

"Scooby-Doo" that the Elder had let him watch holotapes of as a child. Except in

this case, it sounded like ol' Scoob was speaking through shards of broken glass

and fragments of rusty metal with a side of barbed wire. This thing had a very

growl-y and rumbling vocalization.

Erik tried again, his voice still wavering a bit due to the most previous scare;

"have you been following me today?" The thing looked at him again and tried a

third time, this time ended with something close to a "RHesssh." Erik was again

surprised, but a bit pleased as well. "Why? Why were you following me?" Erik

asked. He knew it was pointless, considering the thing couldn't clearly speak

English, but decided to try anyway. The being seemed to be mustering the neurons

to speak, but decided against it. It looked around and lumbered toward the desk.

It picked up a framed photo of the scientists that Erik knew was Penny and

Hawthorne. The being pointed at the scientists and gargled something that Erik

guessed was "scientists" followed by "mom." Then again it could very well have

been "rockfish" followed by "bomb", "calm", or anything else, really. He

parroted back "scientists?" The thing looked pleased and gently placed the frame

back on the desk. "They're the ones that created you? Your parents?" The

creature looked pleased with himself - if it were a "him", Erik wasn't sure,

but didn't feel the need to find out firsthand.

Erik and the beast stared at each other for a few minutes more, as if trying to

bore a hole into each other's minds with their eyes. The creature motioned

toward itself and repeated the word "Roosh" three or so times. Erik looked

genuinely confused. He pointed at the creature and said "Your name's Rush?". It

grinned as well as it could, showing two rows of perfectly sharp teeth complete

with a set of canines that could easily enable the extraction of a jugular vein

with a surgeon's precision. Surprised by his own automatic response, Erik stood

up and extended a hand toward the creature. "Rush? I'm Erik. Please don't eat

me. It's, uh, nice to meet you?" The creature slowly extended it's ham-sized

right hand to meet with Erik's and paused, unsure of this new custom. Erik

grabbed the creature's hand with his left, directed it to his right, folded his

clawed digits around Erik's hand and began the motions of a handshake. Erik

smiled. He was trying to make friends with something that should be trying to

eat him alive. Fortunately, it seemed to be working.

The creature began to mimic Erik's up-and-down motions of the handshake. After a

few moments of Erik smiling at him, Rush seemed to be pleased, as his large

wolf-like tail was slowly wagging behind him. After Erik was able to free his

hand from the creature's grip, he began in inquisition again. "So, uh, Rush. Do

you know what happened to the scientists?" Erik pointed back at the photo. Rush

again, in his gravel-y voice said "mom". "Right, your mom. Can I meet her?" Rush

blinked, squinted at the small human and tilted his head to the left. After a

moment he nodded his head. With a start, Rush bounded out of the apartment,

leaped down from the deck, and bounded down the lane into what appeared to be an

office of sorts.

He was gone for nearly fifteen minutes. All of which time, Erik was reclining on

the sofa on the deck, enjoying another Nuka from his nearby backpack, waiting

for whatever was coming. If he was going to die today, he may as well not be

thirsty. This area was odd, it was silent, but it still felt alive. When

Rush came back, he was holding a small container in his hands. With a quick

leap, Rush landed on the deck. Erik wasn't sure what it was, but he did

notice that engraved in the surface of the stone container was "Penny

Hawthorne". Rush handed the container to Erik, muttering "mom." Erik could

see all of the engraving now, it read:

"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Penny Hawthorne

{|'-. Scientist,

{ \ \ Daughter,

|/`'-./+. Beloved

`\.- \\ Wife,

_ / and

| |/ Mother

\/_/\

/\_/

May You Rest

in Peace

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"

"Oh ... oh no.I'm sorry" muttered. He went cold, a knot formed in his throat.

He sat the urn on the coffee table near the couch and stared at it. Why was he

suddenly so emotionally vested in some long-dead scientist? These experiments

had to have happened over a hundred years ago. How could he possibly have any

feelings for this Penny lady?

Sensing Erik's sadness, Rush sat down on the deck near the couch, nestled his

large head in Erik's lap, and stared up at Erik with sad eyes. Erik was in quite

a shock. "Who _was_ this lady?" Erik began to absentmindedly scratch Rush's

head, just behind his large, pointy ears. This elicited a sound that was

reminiscent of rocks being tumbled in a clothes dryer while being thrown over a

cliff to come from Rush's throat. Erik pulled his hand away quickly and looked

at him. "Uh, sorry?" Rush nudged Erik's hand, apparently requesting that he

resume his previous affections. He obliged. They sat like that for half an hour

or more, jointly staring at the urn. It was strange, but Erik liked this weird

predicament. He'd never been able to own a dog, let alone one that could speak

and seemed to be pretty intelligent.

Erik looked down at the wolf-like head resting in his lap. He smiled as he

thought to himself, "This is pretty nice. I wonder if he'll travel with me?"

This thought was quickly set aside as Erik began to yawn loudly. He glanced at

his Pip-Boy, it was nearing midnight. He'd been down here, afraid for his life

all day today and was starting to feel it. Yawning a second time, he nudged Rush

out of his lap and stood up. "Rush, I'm going to call home and let them know

I'm okay, okay?" Rush tilted his head to the left and simply stared back at

Erik. "Right..." After poking at his Pip-Boy, he tried another transmission back

to Delta base: "Delta base, this is explorer Erik. Please come in. This is Erik,

I'm totally not dead. Is anyone at the comms? Jenkins?" Again, to his disgust,

the only reply was static. He tried again, just to be sure. "Delta two, this is

explorer Erik. I'm fine, still investigating as instructed. Will report at 0900

as usual." He turned the broadcast off on his Pip-Boy and collapsed back on the

couch. "Damnit."

"Well Rush, I guess I'll stay down here for the night and get a fresh start in

the morning. Sound okay to you?" He didn't respond, but slowly wagged his tail

and nuzzled into Erik's lap again. "Is there anyone else around here? Maybe

someone I can stay with?" Rush stared at Erik for a moment, nodded, then got up

and let loose what Erik though was the loneliest howl he'd ever heard. Within

mere moments, there were at least five, maybe more howls crying back a report.

Erik looked at Rush, "family?" Rush simply continued to lazily wag his shaggy

tail.

As Rush made his way back to the couch and sat to Erik's left, a train of

similar creatures cautiously made their way up the stairs. There were only four:

one was about Rush's size, but a lighter shade of brown like mocha, two were a

bit smaller and their coats were mottled cream and grey, the last was the

largest by far. It had to be at least a head or so taller than Rush, it was also

much older, judging from its stiff movements and light coat. Erik and the group

of creatures stared at each other for a moment. Rush got up and made his way

over to the biggest one, presumably the elder of the group. Well, Erik guessed

they were really better described as a pack. They didn't say anything, but there

were plenty of glances exchanged which ended with Rush bowing his head and

taking his previous position by Erik who was a bit confused and more than a bit

curious. He got up, a bit to quickly for the Elder's liking. The elder sneered

and growled viscously at Erik, bearing his teeth and snapping his maw in a stern

warning. Erik went wide-eyed and decided it was in his best interest to slowly

resume his previous position. He looked at the elder, and decided to offer him a

hand. He held out a hand, palm-side up in the Elder's direction. Rush made no

movements nor vocalizations during this time, probably under the Elder's silent

order.

The snowy-coated elder slowly and stiffly made its way over toward Erik, staring

him down the entire time with its glowing eyes. It sniffed his hand and then

looked at Rush, as if to say "What do you think?". Rush gave the Elder a curt

nod and returned the elder's respectful gaze. After his quick moment with Rush,

the elder began to sniff around Erik, trying to get a better sense of where he'd

been and who he was. After a few long minutes of being nasally inspected, the

elder decided that Erik posed no immediate threat to the pack. After the Elder

snuffed in Erik's direction, turned its back, it paused to glance over its left

shoulder at Rush, and went down the stairs, the other three followed. Rush tayed

behind with his new, funny-smelling companion.

After Erik watched the small pack disappear and disperse throughout the small

community, he turned to Rush and quipped, "Well, that was fun. Am I okay, or

should I get ready to go sleep in a ditch? Permanently?" Rush didn't reply, but

got up and walked toward the stairs where the others had left, stopped, and

stared at Erik with his yellow glowing eyes. Erik got up, assuming that Rush was

waiting for him, grabbed his bag and began to follow Rush down the stairs to

their next locale.

After the duo made their way down the stairs, Erik halted their progress, "Hang

on!" Rush paused in his tracks, turned around, and gave Erik that familiar

cock-headed questioning look - complete with furrowed eyebrows. Erik just held

up a finger, pulled the stone container from his bag, and handed it back to

Rush. "We almost left it behind, what with all of the fun we were having. Its

important not to forget something this important." Rush went wide-eyed and

quickly took the container back from Erik, gently cradling it into his chest.

They made their way into the small three-room office on the North side of the

storage area. It was much cleaner than the other building he'd visited. All of

the papers were stacked in perfect stacks, and even the computer was in pristine

condition. He looked at Rush who was now making his way back through another

door, "Hey, Rush? Why is everything so clean? It's a bit out of place

considering everything else around here..." Rush stopped mid-step and turned

around to face Erik, he stared at him momentarily and grumbled "respect."

"Respect?" Erik questioned. "What now? No one works here any more ... do they?"

Immediately after asking that question, he regretted it. A RobCo RoboBrain model

robot wheeled its way into the office from a room in the back. "Hello, human.

Please pardon the mess. My children do not tend to keep house well." Erik stood

frozen in place, knowing full well that these things came with some nasty

weaponry. The robot noticed his hesitation and in its mechanical voice said

"Human, I can read your blood pressure from here. I offer you no threat. In

fact, I was once a scientist, and still am." Erik stared with his mouth agape at

the robot, "You...w...who? What? You should be dead..." Rush flinched at the

notion. "You couldn't possibly be Hawthorne, I heard you get shot!" The robot

scoffed at his question. The robot continued as sharply as a robot could;

"That'll be _doctor_ Hawthorne to you. And I still am Hawthorne, or at least his

brain. Do your best not to ever get shot, child. It's not good for one's

health." The robot chuckled metallic-ly at his little joke. Erik decided to

close his mouth at this point. Apparently, the death he thought he heard on that

holotape that morning wasn't the end of the story.

"Now there's a good boy. What may I call you, young man?" Erik gathered his

thoughts, stood proud, and stated "I am Erik Rade of the Brotherhood of Steel,

explorer, first class, Delta brigade, southern detachment." The doctor robot

turned and did its best to emulate a crisp salute. "Mr. Rade, it's nice to meet

you. I've not seen another human since that damned general decided to tear my

beautiful lab apart. Speaking of the lab, Mr. Rade, were you able to get into

the lab this morning? No? That's a shame, but not much of a surprise." Erik went

a shade or two paler than normal. "You've been watching me? The mainframe was

trashed, I've seen no cameras...I-I was told there was no one here...," Erik

stammered. "Well, Mr. Rade, technically your informants were correct. There are

no _humans_ here. Just me, and my children. And now, you." squawked Dr.

Hawthorne's brain. Erik thought for a minute, "Doctor, I don't suppose you're

the reason I can't get radio comms?" The robobrain nodded. "Indeed, Mr. Rade, I

am. I must ensure that our children survive. But, that is neither here nor

there. Rest now, and tomorrow I will answer all of your questions. I'm sure

you'll have plenty more by then." The robot waved them off as it wheeled out of

the door and down a lane toward a repair pod in the center of the apartments.

Rush slowly waved as the robot left with a solemn look in his eyes. Rush turned

to Erik and continued his familiar stare.

"Whaaaa..." Erik yawned in the middle of his line of questioning. That was the

answer. Rush let out a yawn to match Erik's. His jaw opened wide, showing his

rows of perfectly sharp teeth. As he did so, his long tongue curled outward,

ending his yawn in a tiny bark. Erik decided that he'd had quite enough for

today. "Rush, where can I sleep around here?" Rush got up from his position near

an end table by the entrance where he'd placed the urn and began to walk to the

back room. He halted at the threshold and stared at Erik over his left shoulder,

waiting for him to come. He caught the drift, picked up his bag and made his way

to the back room. Upon entering, he noticed it was sparsely populated, but still

quite nice. A queen-sized bed, a desk with an active RobCo terminal and

comfortable-looking green leather chair, two filing cabinets, a small table, and

yet another door. Erik looked around, "Rush, do you stay here? It's very nice."

Rush stared back at Erik and slowly wagged his tail. "You sure don't talk much,

do you?" Rush continued to wag his tail and mumbled "need work". Erik chuckled

as he made his way to what he'd hoped was a bathroom behind the new door. He

was right! He opened the door and turned on the lights to a surprisingly large

bathroom. It had a large military-style shower, a commode, and two sinks. Why

two sinks, he didn't know, but was quite happy to find that shower. Erik turned

around and poked his head through the door. "Is it okay if I grab a shower?"

Rush bowed his head once and turned away from the bathroom.

After closing the door, Erik began to disrobe. First his dusty trench coat, then

his t-shirt, pistol and its brahmin-leather shoulder holster, Pip-Boy, belt,

sneakers, socks, and finally his tattered and stained jeans. He stood in his

frayed boxers, staring at his twenty-six-and-a-half year old self in the mirror.

He began to stretch his back and other sore muscles. As he did so, the door

creaked open and a pair of yellow eyes were peeking through, full of curiosity.

Erik saw the yellow eyes in the mirror as he stretched, he stared back at the

reflection. "Can I help you with something?" Rush replied flatly, "study". Erik

squinted at the eyes in the mirror and jokingly said "I supposed it's hard to

study prey from that far away." Rush opened the door fully and sat on a closed

toilet, staring at Erik. "Have you never seen a human before?" Erik queried.

Rush shook his head. Erik chuckled. "well, this is just about all there is to

see. Nothing interesting." As Erik finished that last sentence, Rush was up and

over, sniffing Erik's bare flesh. Rush wasn't nearly as talented as his elder;

he couldn't get a good sense of Erik through all of that awfully itchy-looking

stuff.

Unsure of what to do and a bit unnerved, he held still and waited for Rush to

finish. First his neck and hair, then under his arms, and his feet. Erik nearly

jumped a solid foot into the air as his crotch got a cold nosing as well. Once

satisfied, Rush sat back down and continued to stare at Erik. "Jesus, dude! You

really ought to warn someone before you start nosing around down there!" Rush

looked down in shame. Erik immediately felt bad for yelling at him; his kind

surely have a different set of customs, probably even their own culture. Surely

none of which involve the sort of privacy that clothing affords. They sur e

seem to do a lot of staring though. Erik walked over to Rush and patted him on

the head. "Sorry Rush. You just surprised me, that's all. I'm not used to having

hulking behemoths sniffing me up like that." Rush looked up at Erik and nodded,

grumbling an apology. Erik continued to scratch Rush between his ears, just as

he had earlier. Rush closed his eyes and enjoyed the action. After few short

minutes of scratching, Erik stopped and asked Rush "Now, may I have my shower?"

Rush gave a single nod and continued his vigil from the throne. Erik squinted

and stared at Rush who was still starting back at him. "What, are you going to

sit there and watch? That's creepy." Rush shook his head and grumbled "join".

Erik sighed and dropped his head. He though to himself "Well, why the hell not?

I need a shower, Rush sure as hell needs one, damn if he doesn't smell." Erik

looked up at Rush and simply shook his head with a half-hearted smirk and a

snort. "Okay, let's go. Just don't judge me or anything." Rush tilted his head

in query. Erik walked over to the shower and turned on the water. While it was

warming up, he rummaged around and found some soap and a couple of towels in the

cabinet under one of the sinks. As the bathroom began to steam up, Erik grabbed

the soap, unceremoniously tossed off his boxers, and stepped into the warm

water. As the water ran through his hair and over his head, all he could do was

sigh in relief. He longed to take a hot shower for ages. He couldn't remember

the last time he was able to wash properly. Washcloth wipe- downs were the norm

these days. After some moments of bliss, Erik noticed that Rush was standing at

the threshold of the curtain-less shower stall, staring again. "What's wrong?

Why are you staring at me again?" Rush didn't reply, but looked at the shower

head then quickly back at Erik. "Yeah, yeah, come on." Rush obliged and stepped

into the large shower stall to Erik's left. "I can't read your mind, ya know? I

guess we need to work on your talking more ..."

Erik noticed Rush seemed to be enjoying the shower just as much as he did, as

there was a semblance of a grin on his maw. A scary grin, but a grin

nonetheless. Erik began his routine wash: hair first, then soap everywhere else.

Rush simply stood in the water, not wanting to move. After Erik had lathered up,

he was soon fumbling around for the water. Doing his best to avoid getting soap

in his eyes, he mistakenly smacked Rush in a kidney. This got a surprised yelp

from Rush who was previously enjoying the warm water. He saw Erik feeling around

and guided him toward the water. After being assisted, he gargled out of the

water "Thanks, sorry". While Erik was rinsing his hair, Rush gave it a good

sniff then grimaced. He much preferred the human's natural musk over the

artificial scents of the soap. The human's scent reminded him of something long

forgotten, fuzzy in his mind. Erik noticed the new nosing he was getting, "You

don't like it either, huh?". Erik offered the soap to Rush who grimaced again.

"Yeah, I know it smells awful, but it does a good job." Rush shook his head in

disgust. Rush smelled like a musky badger that'd been rolling around in sawdust,

rust, and death; Erik decided that if Rush was going to hang around, that wasn't

going to fly. He began to wash Rush like a dog; lots of suds

and vigorous scrubbing. Rush resisted at first, even bearing his teeth in

protest with a light growl, but he quickly relented under Erik's vigorous

scratching. Erik took his time trying to get everywhere he was comfortable

getting to. When he was done, he looked Rush over and chuckled; he almost looked

like a inverted penguin. He pushed Rush into the water and instructed him to

finish washing while he resumed his own.

After they were both clean, Erik turned off the water and grabbed a towel. Rush

was staring again at the human's curious actions, why not just shake off? Erik

noticed the staring again. "What's wrong now?" Rush said nothing, but shook off,

much like a dog. Erik threw a towel at him after he was done shaking. "This'll

do you better." Rush stared at the towel he caught in his left paw for a moment,

then mimicked Erik's actions. After they both dried off, Erik tied his towel

around his waist decided he was more than ready for some shut- eye. Erik looked

back at Rush who was still holding his towel. "Thanks for letting me borrow your

shower,Rush. Do you know where I can bed for the night?" Rush nodded and

grumbled "here" while pointing at the large bed. "Are you sure? I can go back

and sleep in one of the apartments or something, I don't want to put you out of

your own bed." Rush nodded once and said "join" again.

Erik nodded a thanks. Quickly realizing that he was still in his towel, Erik

made his way to the bathroom to grab his boxers. By the time he had them on and

was out of the bathroom, Rush had already taken up the entire queen-sized bed.

This time it was Erik's turn to stare. Rush realized this and began to wag his

tail, turning over to the left from his belly to look at Erik. He slid over to

the right and made room for the tiny human. Erik thanked him again and occupied

the hole to the left of Rush. It didn't take long, but he was quickly off to a

deep sleep with a feeling of safety and security he'd never had before.

Considering he spent most of his life alone on long scouting missions in the

Wastes, this was quite a nice change of pace.


	3. 3: Starting A New Life

################################################################################

## CHAPTER THREE : Starting A New Life or Resuming An Old One ##

################################################################################

It was 0600 hours when the Pip-Boy's alarm went off, as usual. The problem was

that it was behind a closed door and under soiled clothing, muffling the native

song of its people. Fifteen minutes later, it made the executive decision to

give up its daily ritual and return to sleep itself. Had anyone seen them, they

would've claimed it was a precious sight. Overnight the large furry humanoid

had become the "big spoon" of the bed's occupants; gently cradling and

protecting his new-found friend.

About two hours later, Rush woke up, pleased to find that his new friend was

warm, safe, and sound. He licked the human's face to wake him up as well. They

had important work to do today, or so the doctor told him. After a few moments

of wet slurps to the face, Erik pried a lid open and stared at Rush through

slitted eyelids. All he managed to get out was "Really? How that any way to wake

up?" Rush tilted his head inquisitively. Erik shook his head to free himself of

slumber's hold on his brain and reached up to scratch Rush between the ears.

He started to get up, but quickly stopped and tossed the covers over his lower

half. Rush began licking him again, in attempts to nudge him out of the

comfortable bed. Erik frowned at Rush again and told him to stop trying to lick

his face off. Rush stopped and stared at Erik. Why wasn't he moving - it was

time to go. He was done being nice.

Rush got up from his side of the bed and physically drug Erik out of bed by

bear-hugging his midsection and lifting him off and out of the bed. Erik

complained loudly the whole time "Just give me a few more minutes!" Rush looked

the human over and noticed an odd protrusion from his flappy green skin covering

that was not there the night before. Rush pointed in its direction. "Damage?"

he grumbled to Erik. Erik covered himself in embarrassment and stuttered "No.

I'm, uh, fine. It's fine. It just means everything's working properly. Besides,

you're one to talk."

Erik pointed back at Rush. His furry sheath was sporting a case of morning wood

as well, although Rush wasn't constrained nor concerned like Erik was. Rush was

confused as to why Erik was causing such a fuss. Not wanting to continue

aggravating Erik, Rush decided to go to the restroom and retrieve Erik's things.

He'd had enough of the human's strange embarrassment over his own body. If he

kept up like this, they'd both be late to meet the doctor this morning. As Rush

gathered everything up, he paused to take a prolonged whiff of Erik's dirty

clothing. He didn't know why, but the human's scent was still familiar. The

smell rattled something loose in the back of his mind. An old resident memory. A

memory of a time long ago littered with past packmates and stories long lost.

Mom.

After making his way back to the main room, Rush unceremoniously piled Erik's

belongings on the table near the door that lead to the office proper. Erik's

trusty crowbar dully clanked against the dark-grained wood. After returning,

Rush noticed that Erik's embarrassment seemed to solve his problem. Erik

muttered a quiet "thanks," to which Rush slowly nodded. "We work" Rush said as

he was making his way to the restroom, watching Erik don his itchy-looking

clothing in the mirror. Erik stopped and nearly fell over as he was trying to

simultaneously put his second pant leg on and turn around completely. "Work?

What work? I've got to get back to my detachment. They're waiting for me.

Hopefully they're looking for me by now." Rush shook his head vigorously,

narrowed his eyes, parted his lips into a snarled, threatening growl, and even

slammed a fist onto the desk.

"We. Work!" Erik stood there, still holding the waist of his pants, and stared

at Rush. His eyes dilated a bit in fear to Rush's sudden change of conduct.

After Rush caught a whiff of fear on Erik, he immediately changed his demeanor.

"Please. Important." he grumbled while removing his hand from the now dented

desk and walked back to Erik. Upon reaching him, he began to scratch his head as

Erik had done for him. "Apologies," Rush grumbled. Erik removed his hand and

patted him on the forearm while nodding an acceptance to Rush's apology.

Whatever work would make him act like this, it was clearly important. The tense

atmosphere was cut when Rush's stomach started grumbling to be fed. Erik's

stomach soon followed suit. Rush began to wag his tail. "Well, let's see if I

have anything left in my pack from yesterday." Erik picked up his bag from the

foot of the bed and placed it on the desk. Upon inspection he saw that there

were five Nuka-Colas, some 10mm clips, one-and-a-half boxes of 10mm ammo, three

bags of chips, and a bunch of dirty clothing.

Erik grabbed two Nuka-Colas and two bags of chips. "Well it's not very

nutritious, but it'll get us going." After they both sat down at the desk, He

popped open both sodas and handed one to Rush. After Rush took it and sniffed

the sweet-smelling stuff, Erik realized that he'd probably never had soda, let

alone an irradiated one. "Here, see it's okay," he notioned as he took a quick

swig." It's called Nuka-Cola. Or Nuka, for short. It's by far the best soda in

the Wastes!" After what was arguably the best short sales pitch left in America,

he took another good swig and motioned that Rush do the same. Rush was suddenly

hit with a rush of slightly-fizzy liquid unlike nothing he had. The bottle's

fading paper label was right, it really was "Fruity, with an extra kick for

long- lasting refreshment." It was quite delicious. Rush, who found that one

swig simply wouldn't do, decided to chug the rest of the bottle, placed the

empty on the wooden desk top, and stared Erik down, psychically demanding

another. Erik paused in the middle of his Nuka and handed it to Rush with a

warning.

"They're good, but you gotta be careful. It's not good to drink too many.

You'll get sick, your teeth could even fall out." Rush chugged the last of

Erik's soda, and shortly realized that Erik was speaking from experience. It

was tasty, but his stomach was already cramping and complaining from all of the

nucleated sugars. Erik noticed Rush's discomfort as he began to cradle his

belly. "Here, have some chips. They always makes me feel a bit better after too

much Nuka. It's the salts, I think." He tore open a bag for each of them. They

both crunched down their chips in silence. Well, near-silence. Large wolven

creatures aren't exactly known for their table manners. It was at their quaint

breakfast that Erik finally realized that Rush reminded him of some mythic

creatures that the Elder had told him stories about as a child. He said they

were from some place far away called "Germany". If he remembered correctly, they

were called Werwolfen. Werewolves.

After finishing their meager breakfast, Erik tossed the caps in his bag, zipped

it up, checked his clip in his 10mm, holstered his crowbar and looked over at

Rush. "Lets get a move on, then. I think you wanted to get some serious work

done?" Rush stood up and nodded, his tail wagging vigorously. "Yes. Work.

Important." Erik looked surprised and smiled up at Rush, "I that's the first

time you've said more that two words." Rush performed his gruesome approximation

of a grin to equal the one Erik was wearing and walked through the door, off

toward the center of "town." Erik followed suit. The pair made their way past

the other cargo container apartments and reached the RobCo Robot repair pods.

They were empty, but there were tread tracks in the dust and dirt on the

concrete floor leading back to the entrance that Erik had come though yesterday

afternoon. Erik looked at Rush "aren't we supposed to meet with the _Doctor_

Hawthorne this morning?" Rush nodded and began to walk along the faint tracks.

Erik followed by his side, his trusty crowbar in hand, just in case something

wanted to ruin their stroll.

After walking back past the first two apartments that Erik had rummaged through

yesterday, they finally caught sight of the doctor robot. Rush yipped happily at

seeing the robot, causing him to turn around from the control panel he was

interfaced with. "Good morning, Erik. Rush." he nodded to each in turn. "I'm

glad you two seem to have gotten plenty of sleep. There is much to do today."

Erik shrugged and asked "So, doc, what's so important that I couldn't return to

my detachment?" The robot slowly tread its way to within a foot of Erik. His

mechanical voice came slowly, "You need not worry about them. The Elder has

this day planned for a long while now." Erik scrunched his eyebrows and squinted

in confusion. "The Elder? Elder Redding? Of the Brotherhood of Steel? What?!"

The robot waited patiently for Erik's brain to stop exploding. After leaving

Erik to his own thoughts for a good five minutes, the robot turned to Rush

"Well, Rush my dear boy. Are you ready for your journey?" Rush stared intently

at the robot and nodded slowly. "Yes. Ready." The robot turned back in Erik's

direction, "Time to move, son. Let's go." He promptly spun back to the panel he

was working with as they arrived. A few noisy button presses and a few sparks

later, the lights and ventilation had been restored further down the hall.

Within mere moments, the lights were at full strength and the air was

circulating again. The doctor began to tread down the hall, back toward where

Erik had started yesterday. The trio traveled in silence, with the exception of

Rush's occasionally snuffing. After about ten minutes of their slow trek, they

reached the security room and storage areas that Erik pillaged yesterday. The

robot halted at the storage room and turned back to Erik. "Did you find anything

interesting here?" Erik nodded and replied "Yeah, some holotapes and a few

documents. One looked like it had a sequence of some sort." "Good, good" the

robot replied. "Did you also find anything from a woman named Penny? Erik

nodded again. "I found her photo and some stuff I think was meant for you." The

robot paused and replied shakily "Y...yes. It was. She spent her last moments in

this world protecting me." "The holotape..." Erik began, but the robot was

already ahead of him. "Yes, it was her footsteps you heard. I had been fatally

shot and was bleeding out. She and some colleagues performed an emergency

encephalectomy and placed my brain in one of the worker bots here," the robot

gestured to itself. "She wanted more than anything for us to continue our

work." The robot turned slightly and gestured toward Rush. "Our children."

"After the procedure was complete and I was, ahem, _rebooted_, we continued our

experiments in secret. Our general had a screw come loose when he lost his only

daughter to the experiments we were running. The robot shook it's gel-filled

brain case solemnly. We did everything we could, but the poor child was already

too far gone by the time we figured we could save her with our treatments." Erik

stared wide-eyed at the floor. "Why? Why experiment on people, let alone

children?" he wondered aloud. The doctor pretended not to hear him and resumed

their agonizing trip back through the halls.

As they walked along in silence, Erik was trying to take in everything he'd

missed the day previous. He still saw no cameras, but on the ceiling there were

sensors about every five feet or so. Erik though to himself "Well, I'll be

damned if those aren't motion sensors. That's how he knew I was here."

After another long ten minutes or so had passed with nothing interesting, they

arrived back at the site that familiar, awful scent that Erik had been stuck

with. He gagged, trying to keep his lunch down. Covering his nose, he queried

"What _was_ that?!" while pointing at the now fly-covered mess. He turned to

look at Rush who was licking his chops. "An intruder that was keenly dispatched

by your friend here." the robot replied. "Looks to be _Heterocephalus glabber_

_giganteum_, if I'm not mistaken." Erik continued to cough while trying to ask

"What now? Looks like it was a molerat to me." "Precicely, young man.

_Heterocephalus glabber giganteum_." Erik shook his head and asked, "Rush, did

you leave this here?" Rush nodded again, wiping away a bit of drool from his maw

"Smelled hungry." "Who, me? How could you possibly know that?" Erik was brimming

with questions this morning. Rush shrugged.

As they neared a familiar corner, Erik began to notice that he was quite lucky.

He'd missed a couple of traps yesterday while running for his life. A pressure-

plate was attached to what looked like a cluster of prewar grenades, ready to

blow him two hundred years into the future. "Whew, glad I missed those." Ahead

of them, the robot replied "you wouldn't have set them off anyway. Made for

bigger game." Erik involuntarily shuddered. Bigger game?

The group continued past a few offices and assorted broom closets on their way

back to the lab. After the third restroom they passed, Erik asked the doctor to

pause the tour. He hadn't yet had a chance to relieve himself that morning.

Doctor Hawthorne nodded a silent "okay". Erik was in-and-out of the small

bathroom in record time. His legendary curiosity could beat anything other than

his bladder. They resumed their pilgrimage to the lab, which seemed miles away

from the tiny cargo container village now. Thirteen more minutes of walking, and

they had finally reached their destination. A large set of heavy metal doors

were a bit dented and rusted in a few small red and black paint was

still looking good. It read:

" LEVEL FIVE LABORATORY:

GENETIC ABBORATION & ANOMALY TESTING

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY"

There was a terminal that looked as if it had been angrily ripped from its

position on the wall; its guts were strewn across the cold, stained concrete

floor. The only thing that seemed to function here was the yellow spinning

caution light with a lopsided rotation which made a slight scraping noise each

time it made a full revolution. "Some entrance..." Erik scoffed. The robot

ignored his comments as he began to roll toward the double doors. "Blasted

travesty. I don't have hands!" Erik smirked at the robot's comment. "Need some

assistance?" Erik inquired. "Why, yes. I would appreciate it. I could use a bit

of your blood." Erik studied the robot, "Uh, no? Why do you need _my_ blood?"

"You see, the lock on this door is biological." Doctor Hawthorne explained. "I

would simply request a retina scan, but as you can see my terminal is in

tatters." The doctor swept a clawed arm in the direction of the gutted terminal.

"This lab is locked down to only accept my DNA sequence, or someone related to

me. Unfortunately, this piece of antiquated technology can only read the

genome."

Erik opened his mouth and shut it again a couple of times. "But, I can't be

related to you. I was born to the Brotherhood. The Elder said my mum and dad

died on the battlefield against a wave of the Master's mutants. They were

holding a forward line to keep a small settlement safe. I believe it was Red

Creek?" The robot chuckled mechanically. Erik didn't find it funny in the least.

"Is that what Redding told you? I'm not surprised. It's not like the truth is

any better, at least the story he told you sounds awe inspiring."

Erik went pale and started to shout in a quavering voice, "HOW CAN YOU KNOW

ANYTHING ABOUT ME?! I'VE NEVER MET YOU. YOU CAN'T HAVE KNOWN MY PARENTS. YOU'RE

TOO OLD. THERE'S NO WAY. NEVER. I...I...You...Parents're dead..." Rush lowered

his ears against his skull and began quietly whimpering. As he did, Erik caught

himself and halted his shouting with a deep sigh. "Doc, look. I've never...how

do you know Elder Redding? What do you know about my past?" The robot wheeled

back around to Erik and plainly stated "Shed some blood and you shall have

the answers you seek." Erik snorted "Fine. Have you got something sharp?" The

robot turned to Rush. "Would you mind giving us a hand? If you could gently

puncture one of his digits, we can continue on." Rush unfolded his ears and

stared at Erik. "Not hurt. Much." he grumbled as he extended a razor-sharp claw

and began to twist and dig it into Erik's left index finger. "Yeowch!" Erik

squealed with a tear in his eye as he tried to pull away from Rush's strong

grip. A pearl of blood quickly began to form as Erik held his hand palm-side up.

After he glared up at remorseful Rush, he turned back to the robot. "Well, here

it is. Where do you want it?" "Wait one moment, please." the doctor said. "I've

got to get to the sequencer behind this panel." The robot pried the last

vestiges of the terminal off of the wall to reveal a small aluminum panel behind

it. He pushed some of the buttons on the panel and it swung open. "Over here,

please. Insert your finger into this device." "Am I going to get to keep this

finger? It's one of my favorites" Erik queried sarcastically. The robot didn't

reply, but did take his bloody digit with metal pincers and guided it into the

dark receptacle. Something inside put a vacuum on his abused finger and drew

more blood out. The machine inside clicked and whirred for a while and finally

stopped with a loud ***ding***. After its announcement and release of Erik's finger,

the lazy yellow caution light above them went out with a groan of relief. The

large doors slid open with a prolonged squeal that made Erik and Rush jointly

cringe.

What was behind the doors was not awe-inspiring. There was yet another hall

ahead. The doctor led the way into the dusty hall. A quick five minutes and they

had already reached a containment area. A buffer zone, Erik deduced from a

placard above the sliding door. "Inside, all of us," the doctor said as he

pushed a button on a nearby panel. After they all entered, a familiar yellow

caution light lit up and began rotating. Pressurized gases quickly filled the

chamber and left just as quick as they'd come. A buzzer sounded the completion

of the cleaning cycle and they were led into another set of double-doors. They

were metal as well - a continuing theme from before.

Inside the huge room, there were a couple of drafting tables, some large metal

tables with scattered coffee mugs and chairs, and a few chalkboards haphazardly

arranged with complicated chemistry and physics scrawled across them. Off to the

back there were more doors leading elsewhere with the same sort of warnings

painted on them as before. Amidst the chaos of the scattered paperwork, books

and furniture, and glowing large cylinders that were covered with sheets,

something stood out. A sliver tea service set. The robot looked around his old

lab and noticed that Erik was staring at the tea set. "Ah, my dear Penny.

Always insisted on a proper cup of tea when working on her equations." Erik

stopped in front of a chalkboard that was along the southern wall. "What's this

doc? It's a list of names or something." The doctor rolled over and scanned the

board "Ah, yes. I'd almost forgot about this. We drafted potential candidates

for the experiments over here." He pointed to a couple sets of names from the

long list:

"James Hawthorne, Penny Stewart - Gale Hawthorne, Thomas Hawthorne

John Hawthorne, Jenny Royale - Aaron Hawthorne

General Moseley - Miranda Moseley

Jacob Holiday, Pat Hughe - Olivia Holiday

Colin Rade, Rhonda Tysdale - Donald Rade"

"These were the only some of the trials that were successful. We were able to

tame their genome and integrate _Canis dirus_ and _Canis lupus rufus_. The idea

was to introduce the girth from the _dirus_, speed and enhanced senses from the

_lupus rufus_, all while keeping the human knowledge and higher reasoning

intact." The doctor paused and spun back around to face Erik. "Well, I suppose

the trials were marginally successful. Poor little Miranda died of

complications. The poor little dear had a heart defect, we were hoping that our

treatments would help. Sh..."

Erik had lost his focus as the doctor got more detailed in his scientific

explanation of heart defects and splicing genomes. He was transfixed on the last

name on the list. "Donald". After his mental pause, Erik interrupted the doctor.

"Doc, who's Donald?" he questioned, pointing at the board again. The doctor

halted his explanation of the finer points of DNA combinatorics. "Is that name

familiar to you?" he asked Erik. After only receiving a shake of his

shaggy-haired head, the doctor turned to Rush who was standing to his

left. "Rush, do you remember either of your parents? My daughter Gale, her mate

Donald?" Rush somberly shook his head and replied softly "Very little. Mostly

you." The robot wheeled over and put a cold metal claw on Rush's shoulder. "Well

Rush, not to worry." The robot turned to Erik and gestured at Rush and himself.

"We're all family here."

Erik stared at him blankly. "What? Are you serious? My family's been dead for a

good twenty-two years now. We discussed that already. It's like the Elder told

me, they died protecting a settlement from the Master's..." The robot cut him

off prematurely. "Yes, yes. That's the fiction that you were told. The truth is

that you and your companion here both share your father's DNA. You two are

half-brothers and my grandchildren." Erik paled again. "There's no way. It's

impossible. You're too old! I can't be related to this!" He hiked a thumb back

in Rush's direction. Rush flinched at the rude gesture, but was more relieved

that Erik wasn't shouting again. He had wondered how well the human would accept

the reality that he had already sorted out on his own.

Erik continued to ramble and mutter in the doctor's direction, making little

sense by this point. Rush took a few steps in Erik's direction and began to

gently scratch his head. "Brother" he grumbled. Erik snapped out of his rage and

stared at the giant, then at the doctor, then back at Rush again, his eyes

threatening to betray his manhood. He continued to stare at Rush with a

multitude of feelings running through him and a tear in his eye. His emotions

were mostly comprised of confusion, relief of no longer being alone, and the

fact that he had some semblance of family beyond the brotherhood to speak of.

The doctor started on his lectures again. "I'm sure you know, but sometimes DNA

combinatorics and re-sequencing aren't exactly precise. We were more-or- less

throwing genetic material into a blender and hoping for the best. We were so

pleased that we had successful results, we didn't take the time to figure out

why you didn't turn out like the others." The doctor paused in thought and

continued: "Have you been able to communicate with Rush?" Erik wiped away the

tear that previously leaked out and replied, "yeah, a bit. He doesn't say much

though." The doctor shook his brain-case "No, dear child. With your mind.

Telepathically." Erik shook his head vigorously. "No doc. Just English. I'm not

psychic or anything."

The doctor nodded a response "All in good time then, I'm sure. Most of the other

subjects were able to communicate telepathically to some degree. The children

even showed a heightened sensitivity to hormones and emotions of their fellow

creatures. However, most were infertile, deformed, or a touch mentally unstable.

Well, some were more than just a touch unstable, unfortunately."

Rush and Erik looked at each other quizzically, as if to say "You're not crazy,

are you?" The doctor resumed, "Fortunately, you two seemed to have the best time

of it. I don't see any obvious physical defects, you don't seem to be suffering

from any mental illnesses aside rudeness. Although, I can't speak to your

reproductive capability without samples, but we can sort that out later. You two

are quite lucky, with the exception of you two and the small pack that lives

here with me, the others fought to the death for mating rights or committed

suicide in their lunacy."

Erik's demeanor saddened quickly at the notion of lab-crafted creatures that

were so deformed or mentally unstable that they preferred to take their own

lives than suffer. "Regarless, young man. You've always had a family in the

Brotherhood. You're family has just simply been expanded." The robot followed as

sweetly as his mechanical voice would allow, "as a good grandfather should, I

assumed that your development would be better overseen by a seasoned human

rather than have you grow up with a robot and a litter of pups. Elder Redding

has clearly seen to your growing up as a well adjusted and skilled adult. Albeit

a touch loud."

Erik nodded somberly, but his mind was reeling: was all of his history a giant

falsification?

"Doc, if this is all true, when did all of this happen? Surely not just twenty-

six years ago. I know the government was doing experimental work like this

before we fought with the Chinese in the great war. These experiments must've

stopped two hundred years ago. Right?" The doctor failed to reply immediately,

but instead turned away and rolled his way toward the double doors at the back

of the room. "Back here, please."

Erik and Rush followed the doctor into the next room. They both stopped near the

threshold and stared, wide-eyed at the odd beings suspended in tubes of fluid.

Each of the long walls were lined with large five-foot wide cylinders, each

bubbling with a cyan or chartreuse liquid that suspended what appeared to be

creatures in various forms of development. Most chambers were covered with dusty

sheets, their contents shadowing their covers and casting eerie shadows across

the room. It was a bona fide genetics laboratory.

Erik stood slack-jawed, staring at the visible bobbing abominations. Many of the

beings appeared quite dead, one on the left wall twitched sporadically. Some

looked like they could have been human at one time, others looked like wolves,

some were somewhere in between, some were missing limbs, and some tubes were

empty all together.

One looked as if it contained some sort of radioactive stew. Erik suddenly found

himself short of breath as he started to hyperventilate. His eyes went hazy as

he began reliving vivid flashbacks.


	4. 4: Don't Do Drugs, Kids

################################################################################

## CHAPTER FOUR : Don't Do Drugs, Kids or This Is Your Brain On Drugs ##

################################################################################

His brain felt as if it were vibrating in his skull, his blood felt as if it

were on fire. There were flashes of bright lights, bubbling tanks, searing

injections, and screaming. The screaming was the worst - piercing wails of

small creatures were trying to bore their way into his skull. Or maybe it was

_out_ of his skull. Erik collapsed to his knees and started dry-heaving.

Memories were started to escalate from a trickle to a full-blown tsunami. After

trying to quickly get back up, he ended up collapsing in his own sic. "Oh dear."

the robot squawked. "Rush, bring him back here, we'll get him cleaned up." Rush

hesitated, transfixed by scene that just occurred as well as being a bit sick to

his own stomach. He shook his head clear, effortlessly hoisted Erik up and

followed the robot. The swinging stainless-steel door lead to a short hall that

emptied into an on-call room.

About two hours later, Erik woke with a start. He bolted upright in the white

linened bed, sweat sloshing off his brow and panting heavily, nearly bashing his

head on the bunk above. "Wha...what. What's. What's happening?" Rush was sitting

nearby at a small desk. He turned quickly and appeared genuinely happy that Erik

was awake. "Fainted. Brought you here." Rush paused, collecting his thoughts.

"Need clothing." Erik looked down after catching his breath, he was naked

underneath the covers. Rush noticed Erik's concerned and explained: "Dirty

from sic." It was a true statement, Erik had emptied his entire stomach contents

over himself, then promptly collapsed into it.

As Erik was trying his best to collect his thoughts, he noticed there was a

gauze wrapping just below his left elbow, like he'd received an injection of

some sort. Staring at the gauze, he felt a tingling in his skull. It wasn't

painful, but was getting irritating and itchy. He glanced up at a worried Rush.

As Erik struggled to focus on Rush's intense yellow eyes, the tingling became

much more severe, and as an additional side effect, Erik was actually seeing

colors he'd never seen before. He tried to blink them away to no avail. The

colors in his vision started to overtake everything, forcing his vision to

become blurry. As the drugs in his system took effect, Erik began to mumble

whatever he thought he saw.

To anyone else, the wide-eyed stare, sweating, shaking, and slurred mumbles

would've been worth concern, but Rush had already been prepared for this. The

doctor had injected Erik with a cocktail of Modafinil, Cortexiphan, a pinch of

mescaline, and a dash of Olanzapine. The idea was to force his mind remember

what it had forgotten. The drugs were designed to enable Erik's mind to rewire

itself to enable non-verbal communication and, if he was lucky, shake some old

memories to the forefront of his consciousness.

Rush stood up from the leather chair by the desk and padded over to Erik's bed,

sitting near Erik. He placed a hand on Erik's head and began to scratch it in

attempts to calm him. "Must sleep," he grumbled as he helped Erik to lie back

down. Erik tried to speak, but instead slurred something that strongly resembled

"greenbatterybananamonkeystaplehorse" and shook his head vigorously in protest,

shaking sweat all over. Rush continued to pet Erik's pillowed head and instead

opted to try singing a song their mother had sung to him as a pup. The tune was

was an old Radiohead track that never failed to put him in a better mood. The

song always made him look forward to the future when things would be better.

Hopefully it would do the same for Erik.

Rush began to huskily, growl, hum, and mumble the tune back to Erik as well as

he could. It was definitely more of an exercise for his vocal chords rather than

his memory.

/ I will /

/ Lay me down /

/ In a bunker /

/ Underground /

/ I won't let this happen /

/ To my children /

/ Meet the real world coming /

/ Out of your shell... /

Erik continued mumbling senselessly about batteries and green monkeys throughout

Rush's repetition of the verses, but finally drifted back into a drug-addled

sleep after a few minutes of Rush's crooning. His new brother gently tucked him

in and left to go check on the doctor.

Rush had a quite a few concerns that he'd like the doctor to quell. He walked

through the short hall and back into the genetics lab, doing his best to ignore

the awful sights and strange scents of the lab. He started near the doctor's

last position before Erik got sick; the blackboard with the names. He stared at

it, studying it. "How many pack-mates have I lost," Rush wondered solemnly to

himself. "Why didn't the doctor..." He was unable to finish that thought as a

cold metal claw gently patted the small of his back.

"I'm sure you have just as many questions as your younger brother, Rush," the

doctor paused, "if not more. Rush simply nodded and stared at the doctor.

They'd played this game before; Rush had questions, the doctor avoided them with

technical roundabouts and excuses. The doctor slumped a bit, as if letting go of

a long-held sigh.

"This day has been long coming, my young one. You are quite different from the

others - you surely have known that for some time. You are one of the two most

intelligent creatures I've ever had the pleasure to create. The other was was

busy vomiting earlier." The doctor gestured back toward the on-call room where

Erik could be heard snoring noisily with an occasional murmur of drug-induced

gibberish. The doctor continued as Rush stared with a gaze that could slice

through stainless-steel easier than a plasma torch on a hot summer day.

"Rush, you and your brother were designed to be the ones that can being order to

chaos. You both have unique genetic markers that will enable you to do and be

great. As your mother put it, you are destined for greatness...whether you like

it or not."

Rush curtly nodded. As soon as he caught Erik's scent yesterday, he had decided

to accompany the human. He was too curious for his own good. Of course, now he

had to worry about Erik allowing this companionship to occur. The pack elder

certainly would have no problem with it, Rush was always a nuisance to her

anyway; she called him "Klugscheisser" regularly. He just wished he knew why she

choose German as her mental tongue, it was irritating. Regardless, the doctor

should be able to manage himself, seeing as how he was made of metal and had a

pack of werewolves at his beckoning.

Rush kept his gaze firm at the doctor and began his interrogation with a growled

query: "What happened to mother?" The doctor kept silent for a long time. In a

quiet voice, he responded, "My dear Penny...she died protecting us, Rush. She

died protecting her work; her love. Shortly after she helped the team put me in

this metal shell, she sacrificed herself to destroy the general's men.

She opted for the neuro-toxin: a quick death-no suffering", the doctor chuckled

to himself, "That was Penny: gentle yet efficient."

The doctor went silent again for a moment then continued, "You were just a pup

at that time. No more than four or so. Little Erik wasn't too far behind you.

Going on three I think. Heh, you were just getting the hang of English. Do you

remember your first words, Rush? 'Green monkeys.' Regardless, Penny wanted me to

make sure that you both were raised to the best of my ability. So that's what I

did. Do you remember the day that young Brotherhood initiate came down here?"

Rush shook his head no, that was quite a long time ago. "I figured as much, it

seems like a lifetime ago now. That young man was Redding, he was kind enough to

listen to a babbling robot and take Erik as his own." The doctor paused

momentarily to collect its thoughts. "I assume that answers your upcoming

question: why didn't you remember Erik?"

Rush nodded soberly and mentally prepared another question. Just as he was about

to query the doctor a third time, they heard a crash and heavy thud from the

on-call room. Rush spent no time thinking about his next move as his body was

already ahead of him. He sprinted through the lab, crashed through the swinging

doors, through the hall, the second set of swinging doors, and halted shortly

thereafter.

The scene was just as bad, if not worse than when Erik had collapsed before the

specimen tanks. His bed was drenched with sweat and was now adorned with fresh

vomit stains and a small dark pool of blood where Rush had previously rested

Erik's head. The patch of blood was caused by Erik's brain rewiring itself

thanks to the doctor's cocktail of medications; it looked to be coming out of

one or both of his ears and his nose. Poor Erik had begun to flail viciously in

the bed, he had already knocked over a small bedside table.

Rush scrambled to hold Erik down in attempts prevent further damage. Erik's eyes

snapped open as Rush pinned him down and began shrieking as if he was being

burned alive. The horrible wails made Rush wince, forcing him to become more

panicked as the long moments ticked away - why was the doctor taking so long to

help? Rush wasn't ready for this at all. This should never have happened.

Erik continued to seize and thrash for three agonizing minutes. After which

time, he went rigid and pallid. His eyes went blank and glazed over as he stared

unblinkingly at the ceiling, his breathing slowed to a shallow, ragged gasp.

Rush got up from the soiled bed and momentarily stroked Erik's head in worry.

Beside himself, he ran off to find the doctor and force him to fix Erik.

Hopefully he would be quick about it.

Rushing back into the genetics laboratory through the hall, he surveyed the room

again, doing his best to ignore the sticky blood on his hands and sour bile in

his chest fur. He didn't immediately see the doctor and decided to avoid wasting

time. Rush chose to scream a howl full of torment and pain that was reserved as

a last resort to call for aid from the pack. He stood toward the middle of the

genetics lab, surrounded by failed experiments floating lifelessly from behind

their veiled pods. The lupine stood at full height in the lab, his ears

swiveling for any fragment of sound that hinted the doctor was on his way. He

howled once more.

His only response was the gentle gurgling of the recirculation systems of the

specimen tanks and the blood pounding in his ears. Rush was panicked. "Where

has the doctor gone," he thought to himself in a stupor. The doctor had never

abandoned him before, why would he do so now?"

Torn between whether to search for the doctor or stay by Erik, Rush began to

pace the length of the lab. He ran his hands through his head-fur and began to

scratch and smear blood on his scalp in attempts to conjure up a plan. "Think,

think, think. Can't leave Erik, need doctor's help." Rush stopped mid-scratch as

an eureka moment took hold. He'd seen the doctor work on patients a bit like

this before when he was quite younger. They'd had a terrible reaction to

something, seized, and then got really quiet. The doctor later noted them as

being brachycardic, if he remembered correctly.

Rush went wide-eyed as his body produced precisely what he realized he needed:

adrenaline. He spun around, facing some of the specimen tubes, looking

frantically for a med kit. After tossing desks, chalkboards, and boxes around,

Rush located a dusty med kit. He struggled to open it, his claws and the

remnants of blood on his hands were making the latches much more difficult than

they should have been. After quickly becoming frustrated with the stupid

latches, he wrenched the lid off with pure strength, and found what he was

searching for: a ready-to-use, sterile syringe of adrenaline.

He ripped it out of its sterile wrapper and pulled the cap off with his teeth as

he sprinted back to the on-call room. Rush kicked the soiled bed cover and

rolling table out of the way as he bent down to place an ear by Erik's chest.

His shallow breaths were quickly growing shorter; his heart sounded like it was

trying to pump molasses through Erik's veins. Rush readied the needle above

Erik's chest, aiming for his left ventricle. He lined the needle up, and in one

swift movement, reared back, and slammed the needle through Erik's chest cavity

piercing his left ventricle. Rush plunged all 5 cubic centimeters of the

solution directly into Erik's heart with a strained groan, then extracted the

needle just as quickly as it had been forced in.

The moment the adrenaline made its way into his heart, Erik gasped in

excruciating pain as he tried to sit up and grab his chest, unaware of what was

happening. Rush leaned on Erik with with forearm to prevent that from happening;

he wasn't sure what the consequences were going to be, but he wanted to make

sure that Erik didn't hurt himself even more while his heart was working

overtime. Erik let out another blood-curdling scream as he began to scratch and

rip at Rush's forearm as he was coming down from his drug-induced stupor,

drawing blood and fur away from its owner. Rush barely flinched as his younger

brother was rapidly removing dermis from his arm, he was more concerned that

Erik's vitals get stable than how his forearm looked like it came down with a

terrible case of mange.

After a few moments of confusion, Erik's heart rate slowly began to settle back

into a tempo resembling its typical rhythm. He laid on the bed panting, soiled

with sweat, fur, vomit, his, and now Rush's blood. "Wha...wha...," Erik panted

out, "w...what happ...happened?" Rush lessened his weight on Erik and began to

nuzzle and pet his head in relief. "Safe now," Rush muttered with a loving lick

to Erik's face.

Erik flinched as a dark, foreign something was slowly worming its way into his

mind. It was a buzzing, rattling, hum, but still somehow familiar. It was a

song. Rush was humming their lullaby in his head to keep calm. Erik darted his

eyes over at Rush and joined him in the song. "Rush, are you singing? I don't

think my ears are working right." Rush furrowed his brow, quickly pulled away,

and looked down at Erik. A single tear stained Rush's fur as he replied verbally

with a toothy grin, "Have not heard that voice in a long time." Erik paused and

spoke, "I...I thought I heard sc..screaming. Was that...you? You okay, Rush?"

Rush helped Erik to sit up in the bed and nodded to him as he did so. "Fine.

You?" Rush asked. Erik nodded and continued to reply as if he'd just completed a

triathlon in record time. "I...I think I'll be fine. I guess I'm no worse for

wear, considering I'm not dead." Rush nodded as noted that they both were in

severe need of a good cleaning. Well, not in so many words. It was an obvious

statement, as they were both covered in each other's blood, Erik's watery

Nuka-tinged bile, and copious amounts of sweat. Erik nodded in agreement as he

looked himself over. His hands were matted with fur the color of his own hair

and sticky, now oxidizing blood. Rush nuzzled Erik's face again in relief as he

slowly helped him up and out of bed.

Erik was quite weak and had trouble standing, so Rush took most of his weight

around his waist as they walked in tandem into the lab. There was still no sign

of the doctor. Rush grabbed a nearby leather swivel chair and helped Erik sit in

it. As Erik sat down, he complained loudly about being naked again. As Rush

shook his head and made his way to the on-call room to grab Erik some clothing

from his bag, Erik stared at his hands until Rush arrived with this boxers, then

continued his stare, this time at Rush's left arm. It was mottled with patches

of missing fur accented by bright spots of pale flesh, each bright red and

bloody. "Did I...," Erik started. Rush shook his head quickly and cut Erik off,

"not hurt." "I'm sorry," Erik said then added, "brother."

Utilizing th leather chair as a makeshift wheelchair, the duo slowly made their

way down the concrete-floored hall in silence. Neither spoke, but thought to

each other. "Is this how the pack communicates," Erik inquired mentally. Rush

nodded and replied "Sometimes. Also body language and pheromones. I don't think

you'll do well with the latter." Erik scoffed and then groaned in pain, then

replied, "Yeah, probably not. It's not like you'll be able to get around in town

well without clothing." Rush snickered aloud, "no, I suppose I would be quite a

sight amongst you pink humans." Erik agreed, "maybe we can get you a big cloak

or, oh! Maybe I can talk the brotherhood into scrapping you something together?

How cool would that be, a seven-foot-something werewolf in metal armor!?" Rush

objected to the second idea as he detested the idea of wearing a suit that would

make his fur itchy. "A cloak would be acceptable." Erik sighed. He was hoping to

talk Rush into a suit of armor, preferably something like power armor

accompanied with a nice laser rifle.

After their chat, they finally made it to a restroom, which happened to be same

one that Erik visited earlier that day. Erik, having regained some strength,

slowly stood out of the crackled green leather chair and opened the door. Rush

followed. The swinging door opened to a small bathroom with two stalls, two

urinals, a sink, a tiled shower with a frosted sliding glass door, and a pair of

lockers.

Rush spied in the cold fluorescent glow of the overhead lights with his two

glowing yellow eyes, two very dirty creatures in the mirror that were in severe

need of a cleaning. And clothes - squishy pink humans apparently needed clothes

to stay safe. He padded over to the lockers in hopes of finding Erik some clean

clothes. Digging around in the first locker, he was disappointed to find just a

bar of soap, a bottle of some clear thick-looking liquid, and a few foil-wrapped

condoms. Rush picked up the bottle, unscrewed the cap, and gave it a sniff - it

smelled fruity with a hint of petroleum. He held it up to Erik and asked,

"purpose?"

Erik looked at Rush through the mirror near the sink where he was washing the

blood and fur off of his hands. He stammered a reply, "Uh... well. It's for

when...uh, you _do stuff_." Rush cocked his head in query and thought to Erik,

"What sort of _stuff_ requires petroleum? Vehicles?" Erik replied verbally,

"it's for _private time_ with yourself or if you're lucky enough, mating ..."

Rush shook his head, dissatisfied with Erik's explanation. Rush replaced the

bottle and reached for the foil-wrapped condoms. "These?" he grumbled. "More of

the same. They keep you from getting someone pregnant or catching an illness

during mating." Rush went a bit wide-eyed at Erik's last comment, "Isn't

reproduction the point of mating? Certainly mating couldn't make you ill?" he

thought to Erik. Erik nodded, "Yeah, but sometimes you just want to blow off

some steam. Just have a bit of fun, you know?"

Rush shook his head in response. Erik sighed and shook his head in disbelief,

thinking to himself "He's got a lot to learn... He'll have to meet the real

world eventually..." Rush cocked an eyebrow in Erik's direction. "Real world,"

he said. "Want to see it." Erik looked shocked and faltered, "Did I think that

to you? I thought I just thought that to me. Crap...How does this even work?

Sorry." Rush shook his head and replied, gently poking at his skull with a

clawed digit, "No. Hear you now." "I...you...what? You can't possibly hear what

I'm thinking," Erik dismissed loudly as he was preparing a test. Rush couldn't

possibly know about anything the jumbled nonsense that he was concocting.

Within a few seconds, Rush's confused muzzle went blank, he nodded, then began

to slowly grumble: "blue brahmin delete holodisk pot noodles in Orange Valley

riding radroaches in leather fedoras whilst whittling coyotes..." The stream of

nonsense halted when Erik's brain engaged its emergency brake. He stood shocked

as Rush just repeated the string of garbage that he just formulated seconds ago

in his mind. Erik shuddered involuntarily; he felt as if he would never have the

intimate privacy of in his own mind again. Rush sensed his shock and spoke to

him aloud, "will not pry. Sorry. Much quicker." Erik slowly nodded in agreement,

visibly unpleased with the unauthorized intrusion. "If you teach me how to

control it like that, I'll help you with your English. Deal?" Rush nodded and

turned to resume rummaging though the lockers.

Erik was determined to try the same to Rush; to hear his mind speak without

being spoken to. Erik was quite unsuccessful. All he could hear was a whisper of

pink noise. Rush chuckled a rough response, "You need practice. Learn quick."

Rush turned around for a second time to dig through the left-hand locker. He

gripped the handle and roughly shook it with an irritated growl when it didn't

open right up. "Mich ficken," he muttered in his head. The locker was, funnily

enough, locked. He turned back to Erik who was making his way across the cold,

dusty tile floor toward the glass-walled shower. "what," Erik asked, "was all

the fuss about now?" Rush growled and struck the locker with an open palm,

"locked."

Erik turned and walked back to the locker next to Rush. "Did you see any bobby

pins in the other locker?" Rush shrugged his shoulders, "don't know." They

switched sides and Erik took a turn rummaging through the previously forgotten

locker. Rush's initial observation was correct, there wasn't much. He did

however miss a magazine under a pair of shorts that were stained with grease and

three bobby pins on the locker's floor.

"Ah, sweet!" Erik exclaimed as he grabbed the bobby pins. "Watch a master at

work." He pried open one of the bobby pins and gently worked it into the lock.

He slowly twisted in different directions until a soft ***click*** was heard.

Grabbing the handle, he opened it with a smirk. "What were you locked up for,"

he cooed to the locker. He was quite pleased with its response.

Contained inside the locker were two pairs of worker's jumpers; one red with a

rocket on the back, the other was grey with the U.S. Naval seal on the left

chest, a pair of sunglasses, a wallet with twenty bucks in it that belonged to

someone named "Jack Donneley", and nice pair of heavy boots. "Looks like I've

got some clean duds," Erik said, pleased with his handiwork. Rush stuck his head

inside the locker and sniffed about, sneezed and immediately continued to do so

twice more. He shook his head in attempts to rid his sinuses of the dust. That

earned him a fourth sneeze. Erik laughed aloud at Rush's sudden sneezing attack.

"Well, now that I've got clothes, I think I'll take advantage of this shower,"

Erik mentioned while still chuckling. Rush nodded in Erik's direction as he

reached for the magazine that he'd missed earlier. "What's all this about?" Rush

thought to himself. Erik heard an odd yip from Rush just after he had entered

the shower and turned on the water. Erik slid the door open a bit and poked his

head through a gap between the sliding door and its mottled steel frame.

Rush had started leafing through the magazine and had the fortune to locate the

centerfold. The magazine he'd found wasn't a typical magazine like "Tumblers

Today," it was a copy of "Cat's Paw." The centerfold model was scantily clad in

a silky white bra with lace on top, and a skinny pair of silky white panties

that had straps that attached to dark stockings that had a fancy herringbone

pattern. She was well proportioned with wild black curls spilling from her head,

legs that went on for miles, and perky breasts that would have been perfect for

resting one's head on - not too big nor small. Poor Rush had never seen a human

female other than his mother, nor had he seen anything so beautiful - or

alluring.

Erik smirked at Rush's surprise and reached out to him mentally, "that. Is what

the lube is for," as he leaned back into the shower with a wry smile. Erik took

his sweet time to enjoy the shower's warmth as he scrubbed the filth from his

skin. As he did, he hummed the song that'd been stuck in his head. The more he

thought about it, the more familiar it became. The song was the same one that

Rush had sang to Erik earlier - the same that their mother sang to them as

children.

Erik quickly washed his hair and face. He remembered to ensure the puncture

wound from the needle was clean; the last thing he needed was an infection.

After rinsing off the rest of himself, he sighed, realizing he didn't have a

towel. "Shit." He decided to try shaking off as Rush had previously recommended;

it didn't work as well for him. Maybe he needed more practice.

He poked his head out of the shower and glanced around for Rush. He wasn't in,

much to Erik's relief. He rushed out of the shower, slipped and slid his way

back to the locker and into one of those sets of jumpers before Rush got back.

He jangled the handle, wrenched the door open, and grabbed the grey set. As he

was fighting the zipper, Rush emerged from one of the stalls, crumpled magazine

in one hand a partially empty bottle in the other with a slight pant. He

immediately began to chuckle at Erik's frantic attempts to jam his legs into the

suit, obviously embarrassed as his entire body blushed.

Rush thought to Erik, "Why are you so embarrassed about yourself?" Erik shook

his head and replied brusquely to Rush, "I'm not! I just don't like being naked

and wet with _stuff_ all loose and jangling around." Rush shook his head. "I

don't understand the problem. I don't wear clothing and have nothing to be

ashamed of." Erik stuttered in his rebuke, "I...I'm not ashamed! Besides, you

have fur ... to hide stuff..." Rush shrugged and playfully tossed the crumpled

magazine and bottle at Erik. "Hurry into your itchy clothing. We must find the

doctor and figure out what's going on. I have questions of my own." Erik who was

still red in the face from embarrassment, nodded a silent agreement.

"Uh, before we go," Erik said, "you should probably wash up. I'm not sure how

it's possible, but you look dirtier now than when we came in..." Rush had been

handily distracted by the magazine and forgotten completely about the shower. He

simply nodded, walked to the shower, and began to quickly scrub himself down. As

Rush showered, Erik quickly clambered into the rest of the jumper, jammed his

feet into the slightly-too-large boots, emptied out the two lockers into the

sink and yelled to Rush, "is my bag still back at the lab? I kinda need it to

keep all my crap in ..." Rush gargled an affirmative answer underneath the

cascade of water. After rushing through his shower, doing his best to ensure

that all of the bile, blood, sweat, and other fluids were out of his fur, he

shook off and stepped out and into Erik's hazel-eyed view.

Erik looked him over, "you missed a spot," he said as he walked over, standing

up on his tiptoes to scratch Rush's scalp near his ears. Rush bent at the knees

to accommodate Erik's smaller stature and replied with a small, grateful

grumble. "Thanks again for saving me, Rush. I don't have a clue what the doctor

put into me, but...I'm kinda glad he did." Rush pulled away and nodded, replying

mentally with an undertone of irony, "it's nice. I just hope I don't have to

stab you in the chest every time you want to learn a new talent."

Erik chuckled as they exited the restroom and began their trek back to the

genetics lab. Now that one of two of them wasn't busy dying, they could focus on

getting their questions answered by the rambling doctor, assuming they could

locate him.


	5. 5: Knights and Knaves

################################################################################

## CHAPTER FIVE : Knights And Knaves or What You Don't Know Might Hurt You ##

################################################################################

The duo's trip back to the genetics lab was relatively quiet - a nice change

from what quickly becoming new the norm. About three-fourths through their walk

back, Erik inquired to Rush. "So, that magazine you found...Have you never seen

anyone like that? Well, I mean, not _like that_ but ... I guess, a real, proper

human?" Rush shook his head and replied aloud, "no. Only Mom. Now you." Erik

wasn't surprised. Rush's probably never been out of the facility. "So," Erik

continued his inquiry, "what'd you think?" Erik lightly nudged Rush in the ribs

with an elbow and a grin, "how do the pink fleshy humans stack up to your

pack-mates?" Rush stopped and thought about that question seriously.

"I like both," he replied to Erik's mind, "you furless humans do have pleasant

shapes, but I would be afraid to mate with a human, I think." Erik raised an

eyebrow in question, but Rush continued before he could ask. "I'd probably break

it." Erik laughed heartily at Rush's honesty. "I don't know about that, Rush.

Humans are pretty resilient creatures. We're almost as bad as radroaches - you

just can't seem to keep us down." Rush failed to answer further, but simply

nodded, as he frequently did when he was at a loss of words. Maybe mating with a

human wouldn't be as terrifying as he thought.

After their short spat of conversation, and a long walk through the halls, they

arrived at the genetics laboratory. It was in the same state they left it in:

smelling strongly of Nuka-Cola scented vomit and spattered with blood smears.

Erik shuddered involuntarily at the scent and sights of the lab. After

swallowing his stomach back down, he lead the expedition to the on-call room on

the north side of the lab. Erik was on a mission: grab his bag and get the hell

out of there. He quickly made his way though the double doors and into the long,

empty hallway. Rush followed him through the double doors, but lingered

momentarily at the threshold, sniffing the air. A familiar scent of grease,

hydraulic fluid, and something else that was sickenly sweet broadsided him.

Unless he was sorely mistaken, it was the doctor's scent. Rush sprinted in front

of Erik to burst through the door of the on-call room. Erik yelled at him from

behind, "Hey! What's going on?!" Rush failed to reply as he was fiercely staring

down the doctor, who was rambling on about something called "brussel sprouts".

Rush barked roughly, "Doctor!" The robot-doctor immediately halted his

conversation on the quantum physics of vegetables and turned to face Rush. "Ah,

Rush. Where did you go? You were supposed to be watching Erik. Although, he

seems to be well, although he should be in bed resting. I never could leave you

two alone. There was one.." Rush cut him off before he could wander to another

tangent of conversation, "Doctor!"

The robot halted himself and simply stared at the behemoth yelling at him.

"What, Rush, would make you so impertinent?" By this time, Erik had joined the

two in the room. "Doctor, what did you do to me? I almost died! Rush had to stab

me! Where the hell'd you go?!" Erik blurted out, filling the awkward silence in

the room. The doctor rocked on his treads, as if he were a child who was being

scolded by a parent. "Ah, yes. Well, I went out for a bit of a walk, er, roll. A

stroll of sorts, you could say. I didn't think that five minutes would be an

issue."

Erik and Rush looked at each other, then back at the doctor. Erik continued,

"five minutes? Doctor, it's been nearly an hour-and-a-half!" The doctor was

unphased by that statement."Doctor," Erik queried, "Are you okay?" The doctor

failed to respond at first, but after a few moments of continued rocking, he

stopped and turned to face Rush. "Rush, who is this?" Rush was taken aback. He

replied tersely, "Erik. Your grandson. My brother." The doctor appeared to be

seriously concentrating as the suspension matter in his brain case was gently

bubbling. Actually, now that Rush was looking at it, he noticed the suspension

gel seemed to be off-color. It was typically a pale yellow color - it was now

streaked green, as if it were contaminated.

"Doctor," Rush started as he began walking toward the doctor, "Feel okay? Look

ill." The doctor began rocking back-and-forth again. "Yes, yes, of course. I'm

quite well Rash. Bush. Er, Rush." As Rush closed in from the entrance, he

realized that the doctor was quite damaged - one of his arms had a hydraulic

fluid leak, his brain suspension case had a hairline crack, one of his servos on

his treads was malfunctioning, and there were gashes in his main body

accompanied with rivulets of blood and other fluids leaking from what resembled

claw marks.

"Doctor! Why damaged," Rush inquired, clearly alarmed. "What, damaged?!" Erik

exclaimed as he ran up to the doctor. The doctor failed to respond immediately,

but his brain gel was bubbling again, as if his synapses were performing CPR on

one another. "I ... clan leader, spoke ... Don't recall that well," the doctor

muttered. The doctor turned to face a now-alarmed Erik, "Hello young man, why

have we not been introduced? Rush, surely you know better than to be so rude."

The doctor extended a claw toward Erik, mimicking a handshake. Erik took the

claw tentatively in his right hand and shook it. He reminded the doctor, "I'm

Erik Rade, doctor Hawthorne. One of your grandchildren."

The doctor ripped his claw from Erik's grasp and quickly accelerated in reverse,

opposite of Rush and Erik, flailing his arms in the process. As he did, he began

muttering; "Find tapes, speak leader, cleanse, rinse, repeat. Find leader,

cleanse clan, rinse tapes, speak, repeat..." After crashing into a nearby wall

and couch, the doctor stopped and stared at the duo who were staring at him in

shock. "Oh, Rush! Are you well today? You overslept. Who is your friend?" Rush

shook his head and approached the doctor.

Rush shook his head, "Nobody, doctor," as he put his hands on the doctor's brain

case. "Leaking," he said aloud to Erik. "Maybe infected," he said with a pang of

worry in his gravely voice. Erik spoke to the doctor, opting for a different

approach. "Robot, I'm from RobCo. I was alerted that you require maintenance,

may I proceed?" The doctor turned a bit toward Erik and replied, "Yes, please

do. I'm sure the purple has informed you of the lack of smell?" Erik nodded,

"yes, of course...the purple," and cautiously made his way between the robot and

the wall to access his control panel.

Erik gently pried open the oxidized panel to reveal a rat's nest of cabling that

was slickened with hydraulic fluid and brain suspension gel, just like his

external damage. "Robot, what caused this damage," Erik queried. The doctor

failed to reply, and thanks to the diagnostic lights in the panel, Erik was able

to see why. There was severe damage to his cranial controller that linked his

brain to his central processor. On top of that, some of his memory chips were

rattling around in the panel, dislodged from their homes - he was suffering

from a robotic form of retrograde amnesia.

"Hold still please," Erik requested as he attempted to fit the chips back into

what he hoped was their proper sockets. Unfortunately, the schematic he needed

had long faded into obscurity from the inside of the back panel. After a few

tense moments, the doctor had decided that he was feeling infinitely better -

Erik's rush job of chip pokery was a success.

The doctor relayed his current diagnostic operations: "Internal diagnostic

tests? Successful. Memory obstruction? Cleared. Brain-Service link? 65 per-cent,

acceptable. Emergency mode canceled. Normal operations resumed." The moment

after he finished his diagnostic report, he turned to Erik. "Sorry, about my

previous behavior, I've been having trouble collecting my thoughts. Have you

seen them, today?"

"Them," Erik parroted back in question, "them who? Your thoughts?" "The clan

members, young Erik. They were supposed to escort you back to the surface this

morning." Erik stared at the doctor in confusion, "What are you talking about

doctor? You told me and Rush that you were going to answer our questions

today...then you decided to pump me full of drugs. You don't remember that?"

"No. The clan was to bring you back through the facility and reunite you with

your platoon.

Rush asked this time, "Clan, doctor? Where?" The doctor answered,"we were all in

the living complex last night, celebrating your coming of age, Rush. Surely you

remember something as important as that!" Rush shook his head and thought to

Erik, "That happened almost seven years ago. Something's still wrong, I thought

you fixed him?"

Erik shook his head and replied aloud, "I think we should look for the clan and

figure out what's happened. Sound fair?" Rush nodded affirmative and the doctor

remained silent. "Doctor," Erik began softly, "why don't you stay here and rest

for a bit?" The doctor continued his silence but did roll himself next to the

short bookshelf and appeared to be making an attempt at a nap. Just to make

sure he didn't leave, Erik walked back and pulled the chip that controlled the

doctor's traction systems.

On their way out, Erik walked to the foot of the nearby bed and grabbed his

pack. Dawning it, Erik and Rush both turned to leave the on-call room, jointly

hoping that the doctor wouldn't get any worse in their absence.

Erik and Rush remained silent as they began their trek back to the commons area.

After about five or six minutes, they made it back to the restroom where Erik

found his new jumpers. Erik poked into the restroom, scooped their previous

haul out of the sink and into his bag, spun around and exited just as quickly as

he'd entered. As he was zipping up his bag, Rush though to him, "What do you

think would have caused the clan leader to attack the doctor? She wouldn't do

such damage without cause - certainly not over me..."

Erik paused and looked at Rush, "She?" he thought back with an inquisitive look.

Rush nodded, replying mentally, "Yes. You couldn't tell? I'm the only male in

the clan, well, excluding you." "Heh. I'm not exactly part of the clan, now am

I? I just met you two days ago. Why would your clan even think about accepting

me," Erik replied verbally. Rush shook his head and replied in a bold tone,

"Blood stronger than time."

Neither one had spoken after their conversation. Erik was mulling over the idea

of trying to speak with the clan leader, maybe she would be willing to induct in

him into their clan. He was anxious to find out more about Rush's upbringing,

customs, and mannerisms. Rush, however was quite worried about what they would

stumble upon once they reached their destination - the attack made no sense.

Sure, the clan leader was a hard-ass, but she was never violent without cause.

Erik walked side-by-side through the hall, past the various abandoned rooms,

dusty and long-forgotten restrooms, and a couple of janitorial closets that were

in a severe need of a janitor themselves. None of them held anything useful or

informational, aside from one bathroom that had a sealed tube of toothpaste.

Another fifteen minutes of walking through the maze of halls led them to the

large steel door that previously halted them from beginning this trip earlier

today. Erik sighed and glanced at his Pip-Boy. It was 17:46. They haven't slowed

down since around 10:00 that morning. "At least," he thought, "I had a nice bed

to start from today," as he rubbed his briused chest.

Erik looked up from his Pip-Boy and and Rush. "Ready for some more answers, or

just more questions?" Rush nodded and bumped the door release with bottom of his

right ham-sized fist.

Nothing happened. No lights, no swoosh of a metal door flying overhead, not even

a groan of a failing motor.

He slammed his fist against the release this time with a curled lip and short

growl of frustration. Still nothing happened. Rush looked to Erik for advice.

"Huh. I dunno. Lemme see," Erik said with a groan as he squatted down to inspect

the panel below the release switch. After prying it off with is crowbar, Erik

said with a sigh, "well, here's your problem." The panel's contents had been

ripped to shreds. He groaned to himself and began to trace wires to and from the

door in attemps to figure out some way to short it open. After a good five

minutes of watching Erik fiddle with wires, Rush grew impatient. "Gimme," he

said to Erik. "Give you what," Erik asked. "Metal bar." Erik slid over his

trusty crowbar and immediately went back to his work with the wires.

Rush was fed up with waiting. He yanked Erik by the back of his collar away from

the panel, thrust the crowbar inside the panel, and proceeded to thrash it

around. Before Erik had the time to complain, Rush had already shorted

half-a-dozen wires with the crowbar, causing the door to slowly groan open.

"Let's go," Rush said with a smirk as he handed the crowbar back to Erik. "How'd

you know you wouldn't get electrocuted to death doing that with my crowbar,"

Erik queried. Rush shrugged and replied mentally, "it's not the first time I've

dealt with high voltages."

Their conversation halted with the door - halfway. Erik looked disgustedly at

the door and threw his pack through the gap, quickly followed by himself. Rush

followed suit, bashing his left shoulder on the way through the gap. Growling

and rubbing the pain out of his shoulder, Rush stood up beside Erik who was

currently agape.

What they saw was a disaster. It looked as if a tornado had touched down amongst

the container apartments. Pre-war clothing was tattered and scattered alongside

the debris of porches and furniture. To make matters worse, it appeared as if

there had been laser-based weapons fire. Some of the cargo containers had large

scorch marks. "What the hell happened here," Erik asked Rush. Rush slowly shook

his head, "No clue," he said gruffly.

Rush tilted his head up and called the pack with a long, lonely, wavering howl.

There was no response at first. Rush called again, sorely wanting a response. A

moment later, there were but two distinct howls. Rush immediately began to

sprint in the direction of the first, "Elder," he yelled with worry to Erik.

Erik followed to the best of his ability. The pair ran around to the far end of

the apartments, near the cargo elevator. This portion of the facility was even

more damaged than the first. Portions of the apartment cargo containers were

severely dented and scorched. A portion of the ceiling and wall had collapsed

in, revealing earth beyond. It was under the rubble that they located the elder.

She was severely beaten, bruised, bloody, and a bit broken, but quite alive.

Initially she looked to be alone, but upon further inspection and removal of

debris, Rush and Erik discovered that she was sheltering the two youngest

members of the clan. Erik lowered his head to the elder in respect. She glanced

at Erik and put a hand on Rush's left shoulder as a thanks. For their

assistance. "Elder, if I may," Erik asked, " what happened?" She glanced at Erik

again and spoke to Rush mentally.

"Angegriffen Metall mann kam suchen Arzt. Gefunded wir statt. Allein wir drei

verbleiben." Rush looked at his elder with eyes full of tears as they splashed

down his muzzle. His peaceful brethren had perished for no reason. He looked

back at Erik after putting a hand on the elder's, and translated: "Men in metal

came looking for the doctor and attacked the clan. The elder and the yougest are

the only ones that survived the attack."

Erik was sick to his stomach again. Why would someone attack this facility?

Surely it wasn't the brotherhood, they knew he was down here. Who else had metal

suits and this much firepower? Not raiders nor the Jackals, they couldn't pull

this off. They're too dull for that. The answer dawned on him, the Enclave.

Erik shot Rush a panicked look and said aloud, "Elder. I don't think you're safe

here. If it's who I think it is, we need to get out or go somewhere else." She

growled and winced in pain at that idea, "Nein! Nicht verlassen mein Zuhause!"

Erik got the gist. She wasn't going to give up her home just because of some

random ass hats. She continued her stone-cold glare at Erik and spoke to him ie

leben mit sue vor langer Zeit. Name, junger?" "Erik Rade," he said as proudly

as he muster. "Erik, sohn von Rade, bruder von Rush, willkommen zu Ihrer

zerbrochenen Familie."

Erik swelled with pride at the elder's recognition of him. Unfortunately, his

moment of mixed pride and sadness was short-lived. The cargo elevator had just

reached their floor with a loud ***ding***.


	6. 6: New Friends

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## CHAPTER SIX : New Friends or Old Acquaintances ##

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Erik looked at Rush and yelled, "get them out of here!" Rush complied

immediately with a respectful nod to the elder. He took her arm around his

shoulders and led the small ones away as they each had a firm grip on his tail.

The group limped along as quickly as they could back toward the hall that Erik

and Rush had emerged from previously. If everything went well, Rush could come

back and help Erik, or so he hoped.

Just as the elevator registered it's descent past floor two, Erik's Pip-Boy

began squawking.

"Surveyor Erik, this is Delta station Brotherhood of Steel detachment, please

respond. I repeat, please respond. We have registered an attack by hostile

forces."

Erik's eyes lit up as he rushed around the corner of a nearby cargo apartment

and pulled his 10mm out, readying it. "Great. Now they want to talk." He replied

to the hail:

"Delta, this is Erik, first class. Hostile strike confirmed. Repeat, strike

confirmed. Please send backup, I've got civilians down here and I don't think I

can keep them alive by myself. I repeat, send backup!"

As soon as he got that last sentence out, the cargo elevator groaned to a halt

as it slid open its protective metal mesh doors. Inside the elevator was a small

group of Enclave soldiers: a sniper and two regular troops. There were two more

with them, but they were wearing suits and carrying a large black container of

sorts. Erik didn't pay the suits any attention for the moment, that damn sniper

was quite menacing without any backup of your own. Erik's little 10mm wasn't

going to be able to cut through their armor. He'd have to go with stealth.

As the three soldiers walked out of the cargo elevator, the two suits followed

and set up their black container in the middle of the open area near the robot

maintenance station. As they began to set up whatever it was, the three soldiers

separated and began to canvas the area. It was just Erik's luck that one was

headed toward him, plasma rifle at the ready. The soldiers were yelling

commands at one another, constantly calling back and forth. Until this

particularly unlucky one found Erik's crowbar connecting with the base of his

skull. He didn't see much, just a scrawny kid in civilian clothing and a bloody

crowbar. It was the thing he'd ever see; Erik finished him off with a single

round from his silenced 10mm.

Happy with his luck, Erik drug the Enclave soldier into the cargo apartment he

was staged in. He unceremoniously stripped the solider down to his skivvies and

pocketed everything he could use: the plasma rifle, about seven micro-fusion

cells, fifteen caps, his backup laser pistol, and his dog tags. He'd have to

come back later for the armor. It was a shame, as the young, well-built man

would have been a fine specimen of the human genome, had he not tried to kill

Erik.

Erik holstered his 10mm, grabbed his new plasma rifle, and ensured that it was

ready for a fight. After verifying its clip was at full capacity, he set it back

down on the desk, shoveled the rest of his haul into his bag, tossed his bag

under the nearby desk, grabbed his new rifle and peered through the cracked

door. "So far so good...," he said to himself.

He immediately wished he hadn't said that; one of the men in suits had seen him

smash his compatriot and was already calling to the attention of the others.

Erik wasted no time in wasting the man in the suit. He pointed the barrel

out, and pulled the trigger of the loud plasma rifle three times, just to make

sure he was good and dead.

Those rifles were pretty effective, but were absolute shit for stealth. He'd

given away his position. Erik threw the rifle under the bed, nabbed his bag from

under the desk and ran out the door, hoping to have time to set up camp in

another apartment before he could be located again. He was lucky enough to

escape unseen by the two remaining soldiers and the other man in the suit, or so

he thought.

As Erik ducked into another nearby apartment, he peered from beside the door,

hoping to take another one by surprise. Unfortunately, he'd run out of luck. The

sniper had seen him running across the concrete floor and had a bead on his

position in the orange cargo apartment. He could be heard yelling to the others,

indicating Erik's position. "Damnit, damnit, damnit. How the hell am I going to

get out of this one?" Erik started to lean out to get a glimpse of his

surroundings, but quickly scrambled back inside as a .308 round barely missed

scrambling his brain.

"Well, fuck. That didn't work," Erik thought to himself after nearly earning

himself a new haircut. He heard the men outside of his apartment container. He

was preparing for the worst, loading up his laser pistol for a close encounter.

There was a bold howl from far away, Erik naturally assumed it was Rush "Rush,

they've got me pinned down. Can you distract them?" He howled a second time and

began to sprint toward the cluster of Enclave soldiers at far end of the

settlement. He'd just escorted the three remaining members of his clan to one of

the offices in the hallway. The cargo elevator dinged as it began its ascent

back to the main floor.

While he was rushing around, Erik didn't hear the other Enclave soldier

approaching from the opposite side of his cargo container. Fortunately, Rush was

able to take the would-be attacker by surprise himself as he leaped down from

the roof of the cargo box, winched off the man's helmet, and ripped out his

throat with ease. Erik heard a gurgled scream escape the lips of the man as Rush

performed his feral duty. "Thanks," Erik thought to a nearby Rush. He didn't

reply but did let out a deafening war cry in response, releasing particles of

blood and tissue from his maw. Erik readied his laser pistol and sprinted out of

the apartment to a nearby alleyway between cargo boxes, hoping to avoid further

sniper fire. Luckily, the sniper was quite distracted as he just watched his

teammate get eviscerated by a large furry creature unlike anything he'd seen

through his scope. The cargo elevator dinged again, but no one paid it any

attention.

The sniper, perched on top of a set of double-stacked apartments, was doing his

best to train Rush into his sights. Rush's speed was making this quite difficult

as he was zigzagging between the apartments, but it wouldn't last for long. Rush

was forced to sprint up a small lane, directly toward the sniper. There was no

cover available to hide behind by this point. It was just was the sniper was

waiting for, a clean shot. Rush knew it was coming, it was inevitable. The

sniper drew a breath, held it, and squeezed the two-pound trigger, as soon as

Rush - who was licking his chops with anticipation - entered his scope. In

that instant, everything seemed to slow down, as if the bullet was ripping

shreds in the fabric of space and time. Rush couldn't dodge the round. He swore

he watched the bullet rip a nice new hole in the top of his

right shoulder. Luckily, the bullet only grazed him, ripping away a large patch

of fur and flesh. ***ding***

Erik was running in the opposite direction of the sniper when he heard the shot.

"No!" Erik screamed, fearing the worst. He tried to contact Rush mentally, but

only got more pink static in response. "No no no no nononono nonooo," Erik

worried to himself. He spun around on the spot and began to run back toward the

sniper. As he did, he heard the cargo elevator ring as it arrived at the fifth

floor. "Damn it, what now?!" Erik yelled as he continued to run back toward

Rush.

Just as Erik rounded another corner between him and his fallen brother, he saw

his saving grace: the brotherhood had sent a handful of paladins to clean up!

"Paladins," he yelled as soon he saw them, "sniper up top, and another around

here somewhere in a suit,"as he continued to run in Rush's direction. One

saluted him as the other two scattered, taking cover. Rather than taking cover,

Erik decided it would be best to get Rush out of the middle of the battlefield.

He ran up and with the help of the first soldier, drug Rush into a nearby

apartment.

The solider that saluted him and helped move Rush ripped of his helmet. Much to

Erik's surprise, it was the elder! "Eh..El..Elder?! What are you doing down

here," Erik stammered. The elder's sunbaked face broke into a smile, "today is

your coming of age." Erik shook his head in confusion and stared a bit more.

"I'll explain later," he continued," but first we need to patch up your friend

here." "Brother, actually," Erik corrected his adopted father with a hint of

pride in his voice. The elder chuckled, "Huh. I'd hoped to meet him under better

circumstances."

As they were talking, Erik had managed to rip off a sleeve off of his jumper and

was tying around Rush's shoulder in attempts to stem the flow of blood. The

instant Erik began to tighten the makeshift tourniquet, Rush howled in pain and

shock. "Looks like I'm not the only one with an affinity for getting hurt around

here," Erik said as he tied his crowbar into the knot and tightened the

tourniquet a bit more, causing Rush to howl and bare his teeth in pain with a

pitiful whine.

The elder ripped the crowbar out of the tourniquet and said, "Get out of here

and clean up that mess, Erik," following the second cry from Rush. "There's a

reason I made you give up med-kits for rifles," the elder said with a sigh and

shake of his head as he continued to remove the shoddy tourniquet. "I'll make

sure your friend here survives, now take my rifle and clean that Enclave scum

out of my new base," the elder commanded as he folded up the scrap of sleeve to

apply direct pressure to Rush's shoulder.

As they spoke, the other two BOS soldiers could be scarcely heard firing upon

the two remaining Enclave men. Their scuffle didn't sound to be going very well,

the number of slow plasma rounds were pretty shameful in comparison to the

quick-fire shots of the sniper.

Erik nodded, took the elder's plasma rifle and readied it for battle. It was the

elder's favorite. Erik himself had painted it matte black, replaced the steel

stock with with a solid oak one and inlaid a silver Brotherhood of Steel emblem

into the stock using his own dog tags and broken 9mm pistol. Erik had gifted it

to the elder for his 45th birthday, two years ago - quite an accomplishment in

the harsh wastes.

He held it in his hands, admiring its weight for a moment before rushing out to

find the asshole that put a new hole in his furry brother. He nodded to the

elder, smiled at a pained Rush, and ran out of the door.

Erik bounced through the door and headfirst into trouble. The sniper up top was

holding his brethren under heavy fire with assistance from the man in the suit

who was to their three o'clock, pelting them additional rounds. The second man

had recovered one of the plasma rifles from a fallen Enclave soldier. He was

doing a surprisingly good job keeping the two BOS soldiers at bay. Erik shouted

in their direction as a distraction - it worked. Mostly. The sniper paid him no

mind, but the suited man did. He turned his attention from the pair of

brotherhood men toward a screaming Erik.

Erik spun on his heel and ran opposite of his comrades that were hunkered behind

a concrete divider. The suited man followed Erik, determined to end him with his

own plasma rifle. Erik who was now sprinting and firing over his right shoulder,

was doing his best to avoid being shot. Fortunately, the slow recharge

cycle of the assailant's plasma rifle gave him plenty of time to dodge.

As the suited man chased Erik around a corner, he continued to send volley after

volley of plasma toroids. The last round in the microfusion cell nearly hit Erik

directly: he'd stopped and turned to taunt the man again, only to realize that

the grunt of a man wasn't going to bite a second time. The man flung the spent

rifle away from himself and pulled out the 10mm he was previously using.

Erik tossed himself around the corner of another forgotten apartment and tried

to catch his breath. Panting, he readied the elder's rifle and aimed for where

he thought the man was going to be. He waited. And continued to do so. The man

thought he was going to out-smart Erik by going around the other side of the

building; he nearly did. Erik heard his approach from behind and quickly fired

off a few shots in succession to slow down his attack.

The man refused to be deterred. He rounded the corner behind Erik and began to

unload the entire clip in Erik's direction. Erik had just enough time to look

the man in the eyes. They were wide with fear, large pupils soaked up almost all

of his green irises. Not only were his eyes dilated, but blood-shot as well, as

if he'd taken psycho or something. In Erik's split-second of observation, the

man had squeezed of five of his twelve rounds, missing Erik entirely.

His luck ran out at round six. That one pegged Erik in his lower left leg. He

wasn't sure when; but he didn't bother to notice until the man had been hit

squarely with a toroid of plasma, super heating him and rendering him a sickly

green goo. Having dealt with the man, Erik's adrenaline had dropped and he was

now feeling pretty awful. He'd taken a bullet through his left calf, leaving a

gaping a bloody gap where there was once tissue. The bullet had penetrated his

dermis and a portion of his muscle, preventing him from walking any further,

forcing him to collapse to the hard, cold concrete floor.

He groaned in pain. Getting shot sucked, but at least his diversion bought the

Brotherhood some time. After Erik had dispatched the man in the suit, the two

BOS soldiers were able to split up and divide the sniper's attention, quickly

bringing about his demise with some well-placed rifle shots.

Silence quickly filled the area. Erik cried out from a far corner of the room,

"Anyone home," while fighting to rip off his other sleeve. "Surely I can use a

tourniquet on this," he thought to himself. His cry elicited a response from one

of the brothers, "Aye, explorer. Do you require assistance? What's your twenty?"

Erik roughly chuckled with a cough and cried out again, "Copy that. I seem to be

bleeding again." Erik grabbed his plasma rifle and fired it up from his current

direction as a flare. He looked down and grimaced at the blood that seemed to be

surging out of his leg.

Shortly after firing at the roof, a pair of brotherhood soldiers jogged to his

aid, one of them was holding his arm and had a fresh bullet hole of his own.

They jointly took Erik's weight around their shoulders and slowly made their way

back toward the elder.

"Hey guys, why's everything muddy? I don't remember mud in here..." Erik slurred

to the soldiers. "Sorry?" the one of the left replied. "Rade, what are you goin'

on about?" Erik shook his head as his vision began to fade into a murky brown

darkness. Erik's head drooped as his eyes rolled back into his head.

"Uh...shit," the right-hand soldier said as they both picked up their pace. They

didn't have too far to get him to back to help.

The Enclave's men had been dispatched, Rush was severely injured by the sniper,

Erik likewise by the man in the suit, and one of the Brotherhood took a stray

bullet as well. Given the circumstances, they seemed to be doing pretty well for

the moment. The Brotherhood soldiers had forgotten about the giant black

container that the Enclave's men had set up.

The soldiers carried Erik past a handful of apartments until they came to the

one that the elder was in. They both called, "Elder! We have more wounded." The

elder came out, his mirror-like armor was now smudged with blood and bits of

coffee brown fur. He was wiping his hands off on a bloody shirt when he came

out, "what now, brothers?" He looked at Erik's pale, limp form and sighed under

his breath, "Damnit, should've known."

Shaking his head he waved them in and had them lay Erik down on the large

queen-sized bed next to Rush. "Thank you, brothers," the elder said as he made

his way to the one that had shrapnel in his arm. "Franklin, you look like you

took a hit as well." He turned to look at the other soldier, "Jenkins, you

okay?" The soldier nodded and removed his helmet. "I'm good, but I think Erik's

pretty tossed. He passed out on us on the way." The elder nodded and patted

Jenkins on his shoulder and looked at the first soldier, "well done men. Thank

you."

The apartment they were currently occupying was a "deluxe edition." It had five

entire rooms in the forty- by sixteen-foot cargo container-based building: a

kitchenette / dining area, a living room / office, two bedrooms and a bathroom,

complete with tub / shower combo. Franklin took a seat in a dusty leather chair

that was opposite the entrance with his rifle across his lap, to the west of the

kitchenette in the tiny living room. The RobCo terminal on the desk beside him

was dimly glowing, a testament to its quality. Franklin pulled off his helmet

and gloves. After he tossed them on the desk and began to tug at his gauntlets

when Erik came to. Franklin stopped mid-tug as he watched as Erik struggled to

sit up, his head still heavy from before.

"Whas goin' on," he slurred, looking around at Franklin though the door way,

Jenkins who was in the room, then down at Rush who was still out cold. Jenkins

replied with a relieved chuckle, "Well, mate, you took a cap to the leg then

decided on a bit of a sleep, you lazy bastard." Erik slowly regained his mind, a

panicked look came across his face. "What happened to Rush? Where's the others?

Where's the doctor?! Where is everyone? What's going on?!"

The elder came in from the kitchenette and gently patted Erik on the shoulders,

"son, calm down. You and your friend here both took some slugs, but you'll be no

worse for wear. Maybe some scarring... Now, we didn't see any civilians nor a

doctor. Are you sure you saw them and not imagined them?" Erik shook his head,

making himself dizzy. "No elder, just ask Rush. They're here somewhere. Didn't

you speak to the doctor?" The elder shook his head and looked back at Jenkins

and asked, "you get any comms lately?" Jenkins shook his head with a frown in

response, "Nope. Just Erik's latest broadcast. We haven't heard from him since

before he went down here, comms went black. No beacons, no emergency broadcasts,

nothing."

Erik pondered on that, surely the good doctor would have no reason to lie to

him. "Jenkins, are you sure? You weren't off dicking around while you were

supposed to be manning the comms," Erik queried. Jenkins shook his head again.

"No, we were worried about your lack of communication. The Enclave attack

prompted us to speed up your extraction." Erik knitted his brow in confusion

then asked, "elder, can we speak privately?" The elder gave a single nod and

looked over at Jenkins and Franklin who had just walked in. "Give us a few

minutes, men."

The two left through the front door and wandered toward the center of town to

investigate the mysterious black box as the elder and Erik spoke. "Elder, you

did speak with the doctor today, right?" The elder shook his head, "No, I've not

spoken to him since I brought you home, son." Erik nodded and furrowed his brow

again. "So...the only reason you all came down here was because of the Enclave?

The doctor made it sound like he'd had my extraction planned out..." The elder

nodded again and replied with a chuckle, "Yes. That and we were worried about

you. How are we supposed to function without a half-ass scout?" Erik snorted and

smiled at his adopted father. "Well, thanks. I'm glad y'all came when you did,"

Erik paused and continued, "what do you mean when you said you were hoping to

meet Rush under better circumstances? And what the hell is my _coming of age_?"

The elder shook his head as he sat on the edge of the bed, nearest Erik. "Well,

I guess when I said I hadn't heard from the doctor, I misspoke. He's been

spending his free time hacking into our network and leaving me sporadic

messages; requesting updates on you, mentioning your brother, typical sort of

stuff to write home about. They were far and few between, but there nonetheless.

The last one I got, ten or fifteen years back, mentioned something about a

special day. He didn't go into detail though, I just assumed that I'd been

celebrating your birthday on the wrong day for nearly twenty years now." The

elder finished with a faint chuckle and short sigh. Erik, who sat in silence,

asked with pained tone, "you've always known I had a brother? Why didn't you

tell me? I thought I've been alone ever since you told me how my parents died.."

The elder cut Erik off with another sigh, "I knew this was coming...You know as

well as I do that if I told you about your kin,"the elder paused and patted an

unconscious Rush on his right thigh,"you'd have nothing occupy your time except

searching for them. No training, no learning, no schooling, no nothing. I felt,

as your father, that it was in your best interests. That and I love you, and the

brotherhood does too you idiot, you've never been alone. How do you suppose I

was to keep my only son alive otherwise?" The elder finished his last statement

with another gentle smile and a pat on Erik's pallid cheek. "Now, let's see how

badly you've banged yourself up."


	7. 7: Needles Suck

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## CHAPTER SEVEN : Needles Suck or Field Medicine At It's Finest ##

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Their conversation would have continued, if not for the continued loss of blood

from his left calf. Between he, Rush, and their combined woundes, the bed looked

as if there had been a triple homicide involving multiple stab wounds

perpetrated by an angry lawnmower. They'd both lost a fair amount of blood and

it wasn't going to get any better by them just talking.

The elder knew Erik's health was declining the moment he placed his hand on

Erik's cheek. The elder bade him to lay down on his back and elevated his feet

with the back of the leather chair Jenkins was using earlier. The gunshot that

Erik sustained wasn't terribly deep, but it did remove a large portion of flesh

and a maybe even a bit of muscle. The elder radioed to his men, "I could use a

hand here boys, would you kindly?" The reply came from Jenkins in short order;

"Aye sir!"

Jenkins and Franklin sprinted back to the deluxe apartment the three men were

in. "What's wrong sir," Jenkins queried. "Need a hand removing some debris from

Erik's leg here. Franklin how're you doing?" Franklin shrugged and said, "I've

had worse, sir. It's just a flesh wound." Elder Redding nodded and replied, "a

scratch is just as bad as a stabbing out here, you know that. Off with the rest

of your gear. I'll get you after we finish up these two idiots." Franklin nodded

and went back to the living room to doff his gear, as instructed. The elder

looked at Jenkins and said, "see if you can't find something clean to tourniquet

this wound with. I think I saw some sheets in the bathroom over there." Jenkins

tread offthrough the small living room to find clean wrappings just as Rush

started to come around - or so the elder thought.

The elder paused his examination of Erik and placed a hand on Rush's lower leg.

"Hey son, are you okay?" His response was an eerily low and gravely growl. He

quickly withdrew his hand and stared at the beast in worry. Rush began to

twitch, as if he were fighting something in a nightmare. The elder tried to

reach out to him again, "hey, big guy. You okay?" Rush growled again but instead

of fidgeting, he snapped upright wide-eyed in bed and released a piercing howl

that sounded as if his very soul was breaking. He was weeping profusely.

Unabashed, he howled again, consumed with the agony of losing his family.

He quietened down a bit after he realized that he was causing panic in the

humans surrounding him. He looked at the elder, tears shining in his yellow

eyes, staining his muzzle, and sobbed a choked reply, "apologies, father of

Erik. Day of loss." The elder's face softened from his alarm as he moved from

helping Jenkins - who was deftly picking debris of a 10mm bullet out of Erik's

wound - to Rush's left side, nearest the edge of the bed. He smiled gently and

patted the weeping giant's back. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss, young man."

Redding leaned in and whispered to Rush, " I was hoping to meet you under better

circumstances, you see. Your grandfather had told me of you, I wanted to have a

nice reunion for you and Erik." He leaned out and continued, "But I guess

Murphy's law is still in effect..."

Rush snuffed as choked on his sorrow and asked the elder, "Who is Murphy?" Elder

Redding chuckled, "no one in particular, it's just a saying we have down here

for when things go from bad to worse." Rush nodded and looked over at Erik,

"Murphy's law, huh?" The elder nodded, "yeah, the both of you decided to get

shot up. Was it fun?" Rush shook his head. "No, just hurt." The elder patted

Rush on the shoulder one good time and walked over to where Franklin was. He'd

taken residence on the old white couch. The elder shook his head as he made his

way though the living room to him, "Your turn. Let me see that wound of yours."

Franklin nodded and turned his torso to put the elder directly in front of his

left arm. He'd taken a bullet through his armor, but it wasn't too deep. "Well,

for once Frankie, you're right, it's not that bad," the doctor exclaimed. "Hold

tight while I get some forceps and a shot of something to numb it before I

go digging 'round in your arm."

The elder looked over at Jenkins who finishing up the last sutures on Erik's

calf. "Almost done here, sir." Elder Redding looked at the soldier's handiwork

and said, "remind me to have Major Artie give you a commendation, those are some

of the best sutures I've seen come out of our brigade." Jenkins nodded at the

praise with a small smile, "Uh, sir, I started to take a look at the big guy

here, but he wasn't having any." He finished by stabbing a needle in the air in

Rush's direction who bared his teeth and let loose a low growl at Jenkins. As he

recoiled from Rush's warning, Jenkins dug in his bag and handed the elder a

syringe.

The elder smiled as he accepted the medication from Jenkins. "Young man, you

don't like needles, do you," he asked as he waved a syringe full of ketamine in

Rush's direction. Rush nodded abashedly. "Nothing good comes of them," he added.

The elder nodded again, "Well, this is just a local anesthesia that will

numb the wound; keeps my patients calm while I finish up their needlework. As a

matter of fact, I used some on you earlier after Erik brought you in." Rush

unconsciously rubbed his left shoulder then winced with pain and regret. "You

should probably leave that alone 'til I'm done, son," the elder cautioned

softly. Rush nodded then sat motionless and stared at a pale Erik with worry

while he waited for the elder to finish his work on Franklin.

The elder and Jenkins both walked back to Franklin. Jenkins continued on into

the kitchenette to wash up as the elder sat next to Franklin on the couch and

began to look at his lacerations. Frank was right, the wound wasn't bad at all,

it was mostly the superficial epidermis that was damaged; a bit of shrapnel here

and there was lodged into his skin. The elder gently pried the debris with a

pair of forceps, piece by piece.

As he did so, he began to chat with Franklin. "So...what do you think about that

giant wolf-thing in there? You think he's safe?" Franklin tried to shrug, but

instead got yelled at for moving. "I don't know sir, it seems smart enough." He

glanced through the doorway at Rush, he was gently scratching Erik's head.

"Well, he certainly seems concerned for Erik's safety. I guess he's okay. Why,

elder?" Franklin winced as the elder was struggling with a particularly gnarled

piece of shrapnel. "Just curious, soldier. I haven't decided what to do with him

yet..." Franklin sat in silence as Jenkins took up residency on the couch next

to him. "Scary, that thing is. You hear how it growled at me earlier? I'm pretty

damn sure I saw some teeth that could rip a man apart, no problem."

The elder nodded at their worried banter and commented, "_it_ does have a name.

His name is Rush, and I think I've just decided that he's coming home with us."

The elder paused, added three more sutures to Franklin's arm and then said,

"You're done. Jenkins wrap this up, would you kindly? When you're done, the both

of you should welcome the our new initiate to his new, uh, clan."


	8. 8: Where's the Safety Again?

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## CHAPTER EIGHT: Where's The Safety Again? or Past Daemons Return ##

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Jenkins and Franklin paused to stare at each other in disbelief. They both

started in on the elder. "You can't!" "What if he tries to eat us?!" "He's a

freak of nature!" They continued their arguments for another minute or two. The

elder got up in the middle of their dispute to go deliver the good news to Rush.

The pair of soldiers followed him to watch the scene unfold. The elder sat next

to Rush on the bed - he was still stroking Erik's head with worry. Rush paused

his ministrations to look back to th elder. "Doing better," is all he said, with

a nod to Erik. "I'd thought so, friend, " the elder started gently. "Look, I

know you don't really have a reason to trust us aside from our patching you up,

but I'd like for you to join us as an initiate into the Brotherhood of Steel,"

the elder paused and smiled at Erik's still-unconscious form, then back to Rush,

"I know he'd like for you to. We both would. I think I see a good medic in you."

If Rush didn't have fur on his muzzle, the elder could've seen him blush in

embarrassment. "Yes. Thank you," was all he said with a curt nod. He'd have Erik

handle the details later-they'd have to find his clan and grandfather before

they went anywhere.

Franklin nudged Jenkins in the doorway with an elbow to the arm, "I guess you've

got competition now, eh?" Jenkins shook his head in disbelief. "Now I've got to

work with a giant fuzzball? What's next, super mutants dentists and deathclaw

nurses," he muttered aloud. The elder shot a furtive glance back at Jenkins who

immediately stopped sulking. "Jenkins here will take you. Under. His. Wing,"

the elder said pointedly. Jenkins scowled at Rush, then sighed, "the elder's

never been wrong about these sorts of things..." He tapered off as he looked

back at the elder, defeated. He was clearly worried about his newly-gained honor

of becoming third best medic in the battalion behind the elder and the major.

Rush looked at the three men, then back and Erik, "rest now?" The elder nodded.

"I think that's a good idea," he said after glancing at his Pip-Boy - it was a

quarter after nine. "Franklin, that goes for you too. You can take the next

room. You deserve a bit of shut-eye." Franklin opened his mouth to argue but

quickly shut it, for fear of angering the elder. "Aye, elder." The elder put a

hand on Jenkins' shoulder and smiled, "lets go make a few rounds while they

rest. I'm curious to find out what the Enclave left down here..."

Franklin rolled over and sighed - he was uncomfortable with Rush in the next

room, but was quite pleased with the reprieve of duty. He glanced around at the

sparse room. There wasn't much to speak of, a bed, a nightstand with a severely

faded pre-war book, and a dresser with a picture frame on top. A restless

Franklin laid in the bed, staring at the paint that was peeling from the

ceiling. "The fuck was the elder thinking," the thought aloud. "I can't believe

we're keeping that damn freaky dog thing. It looks like a fuckin' man-eater...

At least it speaks English...kinda."

He drifted off to a fitful sleep on top of the covers. He tossed and turned for

a good hour until he heard something at his door. He called out, "who's there?"

There was no response. He called a second time, "anyone there?" Again, there was

no answer. Franklin ignored what he thought was his imagination and rolled over

to continue his slumber. Just as he was closing his eyes, he saw his door creak

open and a pair of glowing yellow eyes peer through the gap. He grabbed the

knife at his belt and held at the ready as he leaped out of bed. "The hell do

you want, furry?!" Rush failed to enter the room, but continued to stare. He

spoke through the door to Franklin, muffling his voice, "Apologies. Wish to

speak." "Who the hell do you think you are, bustin' into someone's room,"

Franklin exclaimed. Rush shrank back at Franklin's yelling. Rather than push the

issue, lowered he ears as he gently closed the door with another, "apologies,"

and went back to his room with Erik. He had clearly trespassed on the human, and

felt terribly guilty for it. Not only that, but he was just afraid of the human

as it was of him...if not more.

Franklin sat back down in a huff on his dusty bed, resting his well-worn bowie

knife on his lap. "Damn thing was sizing me up for dinner, that's what it was

doin'" he muttered to himself. "I've gotta find the elder and get this thing

taken care of. I can't imagine what he and that idiot medic-radioman of his are

thinking." Franklin stood up and rummaged around for his gear. After finding his

shirt, the top half of his armor, and his helmet, he threw the first two on and

the latter under his arm left. He slammed the bedroom door on the way out,

damned if Erik was asleep or not. For all he knew, Erik was just a quick meal

for that damnable monster. He imagined the furry brute gnawing on one of Erik's

humeri or ulnae as he slammed the front door, and stomped his way out to find

the elder and his star needle pusher.

Rush started to sit back on the bed as he caught a reflection of himself in the

cracked and dirty mirror on the wall above the dresser. He stared at the

familiar, warm face, his amber eyes, and perky ears. He smiled sadly at himself.

To be honest, he was already having second thoughts about joining Erik, what if

all humans were like this - defensive, angry, and dangerous? He only wanted to

speak to the young man, discover something more beyond a name, he certainly

wasn't planing to be threatened with a knife. He slumped on the bed next to Erik

who was sleeping soundly. Rush decided that would be the best course of action

as well as he nuzzled into Erik's chest and fell into a troubled slumber.

Elder Redding and Jenkins had been strolling Northward toward their original

entry point when they saw the mysterious black box left by the now-dead Enclave

members. "What'cha reckon' it is, sir" Jenkins queried. The elder shrugged. "No

idea, hopefully not a bomb. I couldn't defuse one of those if my life depended

on it," he said with a slight chuckle. Jenkins laughed nervously. He'd been a

bit on edge ever since they lost contact with Erik a few days ago. He'd calmed

down a bit since then, but he was still uneasy for some unfathomable reason. It

was probably partially due to the fact that they were five floors underground,

in the middle of a supposedly abandoned facility, in the middle of nowhere

Mississippi, three days away from any backup or supplies. None of those things

sat well with him - particularly how neither he nor Franklin received any

forward notice about this mission until the last minute. It was out of the

ordinary for the elder to go on scouting missions. Especially to such a

dangerous place. Of course, nobody argued when he said, "I want to make sure

_this_ office has a view."

The elder clapped him on the shoulder as they arrived at the mysterious

container. "Well, here goes nothing," Elder Redding said. Both men poured over

the container, looking for some sort of lock, latch, or keyhole. After two quick

minutes of searching, the only thing they found was an unfamiliar symbol on top

of the container that looked like a ring of concentric circles with a bow-tie

sprouting from the middle of them. "Huh, never seen a symbol like that, you?"

The elder nodded at Jenkins' question. "Yeah, long time ago, similar to some of

the tech they had in places like this. It's a proximity lock. We need to find a

key for it. See any of the Enclave scum we took out?" Jenkins nodded as he

spotted one man in a suit, slumped precisely where Erik had dispatched him

earlier, about 20 yards away.

"Here's one," Jenkins called out after making a quick jaunt to the corpse. As

he began to rifle through the corpse's pinstriped suit, he felt a little bit of

guilt upon finding his wallet. There wasn't any cash, unfortunately, but there

was a photo of a young woman with a pair of children, all with happy, smiling

faces. "Damn it." Jenkins sighed a bit and continued his search. Surprisingly,

the man had quite a bit of stuff on him: his wallet, a map of the facility, a

holotape, a 9mm pistol, two extra clips, and a small blue plastic card that had

the same logo on it as the cargo box.

"Think I've found it, sir," Jenkins called out. He gathered the man's belongings

into a small pile nearby and ran over to the elder, adjacent to the cargo box.

"Ready?" The elder nodded affirmatively. "Okay, here goes..."

Jenkins took the card and slid it around on the top of the container, unfamiliar

with the technology. After a few seconds of scuffing up the lid, the card

finally activated the lock. The lid popped up a centimeter and steam escaped

with a loud rush. Both men stood back as the gas escaped, unsure of what it was.

It quickly dissipated. They both lifted on the lid to reveal a velvet-lined area

with a shiny, new brain case for a RobCo Robobrain model robot. "Sir, when'd the

Enclave stop destroying robots and start repairing them?"

The elder furrowed his brow as he pondered that question. "Never mind that now

Jenkins, what else is in here? This box's damn heavy to have only that in it."

Jenkins nodded in agreement as he began to scour through the contents of the

box. He recovered a pair of holotapes, a couple of small bundles of electronics,

and a letter, addressed to "Captain Marshall Redding, c/o Delta detachment,

Brotherhood of Steel."

"Sir, is your first name Marshall?" The elder was taken aback. "Yes, Jenkins it

is. How'd you know that, and why?" Jenkins shrugged and handed him the letter.

"Just a wild guess sir." Jenkins turned back to the cargo box and began to

unload its contents on to the ground as the elder ripped open the letter.

" August 28

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

|_ | |_ | | | | | | \ |

_| | | | | _|_ |_| | \_| Supporting The

_ _ _ _ . _ . _ _ American War-Fighter

| | | |_| | _ | \ | | | | | |_| _With Science!_

| | | | | `_ | \_| |_| |_ _|_ | |

Capt. Marshall Redding of the Brotherhood of Steel, Delta Detachment,

I hope this letter finds you well.

As you no doubt know, my facility and its contents are not to be trifled with

lightly. Stored within these walls are secrets that must never be allowed to

leave - secrets that should be kept locked far away from the eyes of the

world to keep us, and everyone else, safe. It's time one of my belongings was

returned to me.

In the twelve years since you took my grandson at my behest, I trust that you

have nurtured him into a strong and intelligent human being. He is quite

special, as I'm sure you've discovered. He's not a typical child.

This brings me to my reason for writing you. Erik's thirteenth birthday marks

his coming of age. He is starting his transition into manhood and I think

that he should be here with his family, at least to start his journey. That

is not to say that you are not his family, but, simply put, he will soon need

us to guide him through this transition.

Please make arrangements to have Erik here by the 17th of next month. It is

of utmost importance that he arrive prior to his birthday. You are welcome to

join us in the marking of this joyous occasion.

Expect further communication as the 17th approaches.

- Doctor John Hawthorne,

Lead Research Scientist

Magnolia Naval Research Station."

The elder stared at the acid-streaked paper. "Well, shit. I've been celebrating

that boy's birthday nearly two months early every year." He continued to stare

at it in mild disbelief. "A bit presumptuous of that doctor to think that I

couldn't raise Erik. Better still, why this letter is just now showing up, ten

years later and why did the Enclave have it? Did the doctor have this planned

out?"

The elder sighed and continued his mental monologue, "surely not. I haven't

heard from him for at least fifteen years. There's no way this is the 'special

day' he had planned." Just as Jenkins opened his mouth to ask the Elder about

his mysterious letter, the sound of a slamming metal door and furious yelling

from the apartment that their three companions were in. "Damnit," the elder said

breathlessly. "C'mon Jenkins, lets go see what's the noise is all about."

Both men made haste back toward the double-wide apartment. About 30 yards back

toward the apartment, they ran into Franklin. He was visibly agitated, pale in

the face and shaking. "Damn it elder, wh..what the hell are you thinking,"

Franklin shouted at him, his voice breaking. "That damn thing's a menace! It ate

Erik and nearly did me in too!" The elder paused and stared at the man, "Wait

now, what? That big teddy bear attacked you," the elder questioned with a broad

stroke of worry in his voice. Franklin stammered, "Yeah! Well, kinda. Well..no.

But he was gonna if I didn't scare his off with this!" He brandished his bowie

knife and waved it around.

The elder paused to stare at the knife-waving maniac then looked to his left at

Jenkins who shared the elder's confusion. "Okay...so. You're saying that the big

guy almost, but didn't attack you. What'd he say? Was he bloody or anything?"

Franklin stammered again, "No, didn't attack me, I stopped him remember? He was

starin' at me all creepy like through the door...I saw him and ran after him

with my knife. No way in hell that damn man eater was gonna eat me! Not after

what happened last time..." The elder shook his head in confusion. "Right, well

lets go get this sorted out. Jenkins stay with Franklin, give him something to

calm down...forcefully if you need to. I'll go see what's going on here."

Jenkins nodded at the elder's order and slowly made his way toward Franklin in

an attempt to disarm him. If Franklin tried anything funny, Jenkins shouldn't

have a problem dealing with him - if need be, he'd shoot Franklin, then take

the bullet out later. The elder chuckled to himself at that thought. "Hell of a

medic, that kid is."

As the elder waked back toward the apartment, Jenkins was finally talking

Franklin down. He'd never seen Frank like this. "Hey Frankie, you're okay, man.

Let me hold on to that knife for you and we'll go get a drink okay?"

"But..but..no! I'm not gonna be defenseless when that monster comes out,"

Franklin exclaimed. "Hey, heeeeey, it's okay man. Let's just go take a walk and

talk about whats got you so excited." Jenkins was doing his best to keep a calm,

soothing tone the whole time, which is slightly difficult when a full-grown man

is busy losing his damn mind. "Here, let's see," Jenkins cooed to Franklin as he

slowly neared Franklin. "Come now, lets have that knife."

Franklin was shaking severely and quite pale. However, he did concede and hand

over his trench knife. "Th...thanks. Jon," he stuttered quietly. "Let's get out

of here..." Jenkins threw an arm around his shoulder as they began surveying

the remainder of the area. "So, tell me what the matter is. Do I need to go

check up on Erik, Frankie?" Franklin sighed deeply and replied sheepishly, "I

dunno. Man, I dunno what I was thinking. But, uh, no. I don't think so. I didn't

hear him yell or anything..." "Hey bud," Jenkins started, "it's okay. I think I

know what's wrong. He reminded you of what happened a few Springs ago. They got

your whole crew...didn't they?"

Jenkins paused mid-stride as Franklin began to shiver violently. It was an

uncontrollable shudder that made his teeth chatter as he replied. "Ye..yeah.

Even..even got Marie. Damn, th..that pack took her, Dan, Greenly, Br..Bruce, and

my br...br...brother Oscar too. I dunno why I was the on..ly one to make it.

Can't remember..." Jenkins nodded, he was part of the rescue effort that found

him under the bodies of his teammates. They'd been ambushed by Enclave soldiers

with mind-controlled deathclaws. The scouting party had been handily decimated,

except for Franklin. Franklin had begun silently weeping as Jenkins was

remembering the broken young man they'd taken in. Jenkins and the other medics

thought he wasn't going to make it. They'd even prepared a plot for him next to

his teammates at the church. Fortunately, Elder Redding and Major Artie had

spent all night working on his wounds to save him - despite his best efforts to

bleed out due to severe lacerations to his abdomen. They were so severe,in fact,

that his entrails were nearly visible behind mangled muscles...

As the elder watched Jenkins and Franklin walk toward the rear of the area, near

the cargo elevator, he sighed and turned away to walk back to the apartment.

"Poor kid...," he muttered as he re-initiated his trek. Shaking his head, he

continued his line of thought. "I'm surprised he even made it though the

surgery, let alone the attack. I guess it's a good thing he doesn't consciously

remember any of it."

The elder took his time walking back to the apartment, taking in the stale air,

and doing his best to enjoy the artificial sunlight that was streaming in from

the lamps high above.

As the elder entered the apartment, he noticed that the only sound aside from

the soft click and hum of the refrigerator was a quiet, rhythmic snarling sound.

No, it wasn't snarling, it was snoring! He grinned to himself as he turned right

and peered into the ajar door. Erik was still out, but his color had returned;

he appeared to be doing much better. Rush was looking a bit better himself,

curled up by Erik's side, his giant, shaggy head rested upon Erik's chest.

The elder cleared his throat, in an attempt to gently wake the two. Erik, who

failed to stir, continued resting easy. Rush, however perked his ears up and

blinked the elder into focus. He leaned up from his protective position and

greeted the elder with a simple nod. "Hello, son. How are you feeling," the

elder asked genuinely. Rush glanced at Erik then back to the elder. He attempted

to whisper, "well, elder." It came out resembling a grumble.

Not wanting to wake Erik, Rush gently slid out of bed and stared at the elder,

darting his eyes to the door. "Ah, yes, lets not wake the boy," the elder

agreed. The two men walked into the main room and sat on the couch where Jenkins

and Franklin had been only a short time ago.

Rush, who looked up to the elder with great respect, asked, "something wrong?"

The elder nodded subtly and replied, "Ah, well. I suppose so. Your and Erik's

physical wounds seem to be healing quite nicely, but I'm afraid that Franklin's

psychological wounds have not yet been mended." Rush cocked his head at an angle

and furrowed his brow, then dipped his head in shame. "Frightened him," Rush

grumbled. The elder patted Rush on his left forearm, "yes, well that's true. You

did. But not for reasons you are aware of."

Rush picked his head up a bit and beckoned the elder to explain with his

regular, piercing glance. "Well," the elder paused to gather his thoughts.

"Franklin and Jenkins have been a part of the Brotherhood for a long time now.

Although, not much longer than Erik. They all grew up together. Regardless, a

few years ago now, The Enclave, the same people that attacked here today,

attacked the squad that Franklin was a part of. His entire squad was cut down by

terrible creations called 'Deathclaws.' They're bigger, angrier, stronger, and

have sharper claws than you. They've been known to completely render a grown man

to shreds in a minute flat."

Rush's ears perked up at hearing this, his eyes grew wide in shock. "Why make

such terrible things?" The elder sighed and replied, "well, son. Some could say

the same of you." Rush lowered his ears at that, saddened that he could be

compared to what sounded like absolutely bestial creatures. The elder continued

his explanation, "Anyway, Franklin's squad had been ambushed by the Enclave.

They'd figured out how to control these deathclaws and were using them to run

attacks on us and anyone else they deem unfit. Franklin had been hit hard, and

was left to die under the corpses of his own brethren. He was lucky we had a

backup patrol on the way. We found him, worked on him for hours. After nearly 12

hours of surgery, a couple of pints of blood, and some luck, we'd had him back

into one piece."

The elder paused to look at Rush who was visibly saddened by what happened, and

was reminded about what happened to his own brethren today. The elder began to

wrap up his explanation, "So, the poor kid hasn't been quite right since.

Understandably. He's been a bit spooky about missions that require extensive

handling with the local wildlife - yao guai, deathclaws, and the like. I

suppose that when he saw you, he started to relive those experiences that he'd

been blocking out subconsciously. It's not really your fault, son."

The elder reassuringly patted Rush's forearm again. "Apologies, elder." The

elder nodded and replied, "none are needed. You didn't do anything wrong." Rush

was still saddened and replied quietly, "We were created. Not controlled. Only

want to help." The elder continued to pat and brush Rush's forearm, "Who all

were created? Do you mean by some greater being?"

Rush shook his head negative. "Me. Erik. Our clan. Designed by grandfather." The

elder paused petting Rush's arm and responded, "clan? There are more of you?"

Rush nodded affirmative. "Was twelve, now four," he finished with a small

quiver. The elder wrapped an arm around Rush's broad shoulders pulling him into

a half hug, "I'm sorry for your loss son. Like I said earlier, you're welcome to

come back with us. I'm sure that Erik would want to you, and frankly I would as

well. I think it'd be good for the both of you."

Rush nodded slowly. He'd certainly wanted to get out here for some time now,

this kind man and Erik have agreed to taking him in; Rush wanted more than

anything to leave the facility and make a life for himself, but how could he

abandon his elder and two young clan mates? Rush was silent while pondering his

next actions. The elder tightened his hug and said, "Son, I don't know you very

well, but I'd like to. As far as I'm concerned, any kin to Erik is kin to me."

Rush looked up from his lap and gave the elder a small smile.

"First thing's first, son. I can't get to know you without knowing your name."

Rush blinked and quickly became embarrassed. "Rush," he replied in his typically

gravel-y tone. "Rush sohn von Hawthorne, bruder von Erik." The elder furrowed

his brow and replied, "So, Rush Hawthorne?" Rush nodded. "Well Mr. Hawthorne,

welcome to my family, and to the Brotherhood of Steel. You will henceforth be

known as 'Initiate Hawthorne' until you either move up in ranks or leave. Your

choice."

The elder released Rush from his hug, got up, and made his way toward the

rightmost bedroom. "Let's go see how little Erik is doing." Rush nodded, rose

from the couch, and followed the elder. They crowded around the bed to see a

Erik. His grey jumpsuit was blotched and stained with blood and sweat in various

places. The left leg of his jumpsuit had been cut away and his boot tossed to

the floor so Jenkins and the elder could better work on the wound, which was

healing quite quickly. So quick in fact, that it caught the elder off guard.

"Huh, that's odd," he muttered as he moved to take a closer look. Erik's calf

had completely clotted, scabbed, and was nearly back to normal.

The elder was quite curious. "Initiate Hawthorne, let me see your left forearm

please." Rush obliged. The skin and fur that had been scratched away by Erik the

day previous was well on its way to being back to normal. "Bend down please,

initiate." Rush move to the elder's side and obliged him a second time. The

elder was inspecting Rush's shoulder. "It shouldn't be this well this quick." He

looked again, it was as if someone had taken electric clippers to the area. The

skin and underlying structure looked almost as healthy as his other shoulder.

"Well, I'll be damned," the elder muttered. "I knew you two were special, but

this takes the cake. You always heal this quickly?" Rush stood up and nodded in

response then looked at Erik. "Grandfather's work."


	9. 9: Hide and Go Seek

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## CHAPTER NINE: Hide And Go Seek or Who Told Them To Go Play In Traffic? ##

################################################################################

The elder smiled again, quite relieved. "Well, that's great news. I guess he can

stop sleeping now. Let's get this kid up, you two still have a lot of work to

do." Rush nodded and began to gently shake Erik. He was greeted with a sharp

inhale then more snoring. Rush shook harder. Erik continued to quietly snore.

Rush scowled and shook even harder. Rush was now shaking both Erik and the bed

quite vigorously. After a quick minute of this and no results, he leaned down to

lick Erik's face as he'd done days prior.

Erik eased his eyes open and turned to Rush with a groggy smile. "Heeey Rush,

how are ya?" Rush gave him a quick smile then turned to look at the elder for

further instruction. The elder cleared his throat authoritatively, "Erik Rade,

Explorer first class, I'd like you to meet the newest initiate into the

brotherhood: Rush Hawthorne. I believe you've met." Erik pushed himself upright

in the bed and beamed at Rush. "So, you're one of us now, huh?" Rush nodded.

"Elder," Erik yawned, "who's squad will he be training under?" The elder smirked

and replied, "not yours, Rade. I think he'll do best under Major Artie and First

Class Jenkins." Erik lost a little bit of enthusiasm, "If you think's best,

sir." "I'm sure you'll make a fine medic, initiate. If you train hard enough,

you could even rival Jenkins," the elder finished with another smirk. He

silently though to himself, "I'm sure Jenkins could use the competition."

"Enough of the formalities, then. Let's get you out of bed and get you briefed

on your next mission with our new recruit here." Erik and Rush nodded in unison.

Erik uneasily slid out of bed, still a bit woozy from the long sleep he'd had.

Just as he started to jam his left foot into its boot, there was a slam and

yelling at the entrance to the apartment.

Jenkins and Franklin had returned from their walk. They were currently arguing

who would win in a knock-down-drag-out fight, a yao guai or a deathclaw. "I'm

telling you Frankie, it'd be a yao guai. You ever seen one of those take on a

deathclaw? It's insane!" "Hell no, the deathclaw'd rip that thing open from stem

to stern." They both stopped as soon as they noticed that there were three men

staring at their sudden intrusion. "Uh, sorry elder," they both said in near

tandem. Jenkins spoke up first, "How're our two patients?" The elder replied,

"Well, Rade seems to be well patched up, thanks to your fine needlework . Our

new initiate here has also benefited from your fine work." Jenkins and Franklin

exchanged sideways glances. "Initiate," Franklin replied. "Sir, you were

serious about letting _him_ join up?"

"Indeed I was, Franklin. In fact he, Erik, and Jenkins have some work to do. You

and I have a little mission of our own as well. You two take a seat and we'll

get everything sorted."

All five men sat in the main room, all facing the elder who took up residence in

the leather chair near the RobCo terminal. Jenkins and Franklin sat on the

couch, Erik sat in the recliner and Rush stood by his side. "Now then, boys.

We've had an interesting day so far. We've had to clean up some Enclave scum,

performed emergency triage on three of you, and even brought a new member into

the Brotherhood of Steel. Let's give our newest member a warm southern,

introduction." Everyone in the room turned to face Rush.

The elder started, "Okay, son, I'll start. I'm Elder Marshall Redding of the

Brotherhood of Steel, Delta detachment of the Gulf Commonwealth. I run our

little detachment of four-five members or so, and have for over forty years now.

I strive to keep the men and women of our detachment, and those areas we

protect, safe from wildlife and undesireables. The Brotherhood itself stands to

protect men and women of the wastes by collecting and protecting pre-war

technology. We're a bit different than most other detachments though, we serve

more of a protection and service function rather than just cataloging and

hoarding old tech." Jenkins, Franklin, and Erik were all nodding. They'd all

heard this before. "It boils down to taking care of your neighbor, around here.

That's what we aim to do best."

Jenkins was next, and slightly distraught as the elder was always hard to follow

when he was making speeches. "Ah, well, I'm Axel Jenkins," he paused, " First

Class medic of the Brotherhood of Steel. It's my job to make sure everyone is

healthy and patched up when necessary. I answer to Major Artie. He does most of

our outreach work; working with those that are less fortunate. The homeless and

the like. I've, uh, been in the Brotherhood as long as Erik and a bit longer

than Franklin here. We all kinda grew up together. Seems like forever now..."

Franklin was next. He grumbled a quick blurb. "Second Captain John Franklin.

Lead the first regiment gunners into battle when necessary. I handle most of the

firearm training at Delta." He sat silent and stared at Erik with crossed arms.

"Your turn. Go." Erik shook his head at Franklin. "Not much else you do, eh

chef?" Franklin scowled and if glares were lasers, his would have burned clean

through Erik's skull.

"Okay, fine. I'm Erik Rade, First Class Explorer of the Brotherhood of Steel,

Delta detachment. I answer to Captain Cole Johnson, head explorer. Or did until

he passed last year... I'm the lead scout for our detachment. Given that

Delta's on the small side, I typically get sent out to do scouting by myself,

for long periods of time into possibly hostile territory. Been pretty lucky so

far. Oh, also I am the adopted son of the elder here." Erik took a short

breath, "now, it's your turn Rush."

Rush looked at each of the men, so important in their duties, and was at a loss

of words. He grumbled to himself for a moment before he gathered his words.

"Ich bin Rush, sohn von Hawthorne, bruder von Erik. Beta of Magnolia Clan." He

paused and took a shaky breath. "Charged with protecting clan. Failed. Now,

initiate." He sat silent after that. He had nothing else to say, he hurt too

much inside to continue.

They all sat silent for a few moments, reflecting on the tumultuous day. Rush

put a hand on Erik's head and looked at the Elder. "Rest now?" The elder nodded

and followed, "please address me a 'sir' or 'elder' when we're around other

members, okay Rush? It's a sign of respect among southerners." Rush nodded,

"Rest now, sir?" The elder nodded again with a smile and began to dole out

arrangements. Erik, Rush, you two can take the room you were in earlier," he

paused. "Find some clean sheets, if you can."

"Jenkins, you and Franklin can have the other bedroom, I think I'll have that

comfortable-looking couch that you two're keeping warm. Erik and Rush nodded to

each other as Erik stood up. They headed back to bed without another word.

Franklin and Jenkins, however had already begun squabbling again. "You can sleep

on the floor, bullet boy." "No way. I don't think so scalpel jockey. I'll get

the damn bed before you do!"

The elder shook his head, and said in a menacing tone, "share the bed, you

idiots. We've got our work cut out for us in the morning." The two men continued

to grumble as they walked into the small bedroom. The elder sighed, relieved

that the day could finally be wrapped up. Tomorrow he'd planned to find that

illusive doctor and see if he couldn't get some useful information out of him.

Following that, he'd decided to follow up with Rush about the clan - maybe he

could give them some sort of support. "We could use a little bit of help in

these times," the thought aloud to himself.

Rush fell into the bed while Erik was busy fighting to get his feet out of the

boots he's just finished putting back on not fifteen minutes ago. Rush stared at

the ceiling and let out a low sigh. Erik paused mid-extraction of his slightly

swollen left foot, sat on the bed and said, "hey Rush? You okay?" Rush shook his

head negatively and replied, "No. Hurt," as he rubbed his chest, presumably

where his heart was. Erik nodded as he tossed his left boot at the baseboard and

began to fight off his second boot. Erik paused to reach over and tousle Rush's

head fur the way he liked. Rush smiled up at Erik and thought to him, "I miss

them terribly, brother. Most of our clan was decimated by those horrible humans

today. What did they do to deserve that?"

Erik shook his head and sighed, replying quietly, "existed. That's how those ass

holes are. If you're not a 'pure' human, then they aim to make sure you don't

exist. It's their idea of a perfect America. I think they're worse monsters than

those they destroy." Erik paused as he threw his right boot next to the left.

Rush flinched at the "monsters". Erik laid down on his side to face Rush,

leaning his head on his left arm.

"I guess 'monsters' was a bit harsh. Creatures. The Enclave destroys creatures

they deem unfit to live: wastelanders, experiments like us, yao guai, ghouls,

mutants, anything that didn't come from their precious Vaults or left over from

the government. Anything irradiated. Just about everything, actually."

Rush sighed again and thought to Erik, "But why? How could anyone harbor such

hatred against so many? I don't understand. I dislike creatures that do harm to

my clan or innocents, but I wouldn't hurt anything that didn't attempt to harm

me first. Our brothers did no such thing, we've lived down here our entire

lives. We've harmed no creature out of ill will, well except for radroaches.

They started it..." Erik chuckled at the mention radroaches. "Yeah, they're a

damn nuisance."

Erik rolled over onto his back and joined Rush's gaze to the dilapidated ceiling

above. "Hey, Rush...tell me about them. I want to know about their lives. Who

they were, what they did, your clan's customs. Everything." Rush shook his head

and grumbled aloud, "No." He paused then followed mentally, "It's not my place.

The elder is the one who leads in honoring the dead. After she had done her

duty, it's my job to ensure they get a proper send off."

Erik propped himself up on his elbow again, "Well, why don't we start now?" Rush

turned his head to look at Erik, "Your elder gave order to rest. Clan members

are dead, wait for no one now," Rush grumbled aloud. Erik stuttered in reply,

"Ye..yeah. But you said that you honor your dead. Shouldn't we try to at least

make them as dignified in their death as we can?" Rush shook his head

vigorously, he was beginning to get irritated with Erik. "No," he said aloud,

"Died protecting clan. Just bodies now." "Okay, sure they're just bodies now,

but they're your...our family. _We_ don't leave our family in an undignified

mess," Erik argued.

Rush was slowly growing cross with Erik's objections. "No," he growled. "They.

Stay. Wait for elder." Erik shuddered at his scolding, Rush sure didn't have a

lot of patience. "Okay, I'm...I'm sorry Rush. I guess I just don't understand

how the clan's customs work... Y'all's interactions and customs are pretty alien

to me, honestly..." Rush swallowed a snarl he was preparing for Erik's next

objection. Instead, he licked Erik's face and spoke mentally, relieved that

Erik had decided not to argue further. "We leave the dead to be honored by the

elder. It's the elder's job to help the souls of the fallen find their way back

to the earth. If we disturb them, they could get lost forever. We honor their

lives by helping them approach death with dignity. After the elder completes her

rituals, we can collect the bodies and dispose of them. We'll cremate them and

add their names to our songs to keep them in our memories."

Erik was saddened by the thought that, in Rush's beliefs, he nearly doomed his

unknown kinsman to an eternity of purgatory. Erik apologized again, "Rush...I'm

really sorry. I didn't mean any harm, I just wanted to help make you feel

better. Try and help honor the fallen, I guess, I dunno. I just felt like I

should do something to help." Rush didn't reply, but rolled over to find comfort

in Erik's chest. Not long after they'd both, gotten to sleep, Erik woke up to

Rush silently weeping and mumbling something he didn't understand. Erik pulled

Rush closer into his chest mumbled, "Love you, brother, we'll do our best for

them," and went back to sleep.

The following morning, Erik beat his Pip-Boy to the punch. In fact, he was up a

full hour before his 0600 alarm was set to go off. He blinked the sleep out of

his eyes and looked around: he was still in the dingy, tiny bedroom, sharing a

double bed with a tear-stained werewolf. "Poor guy," Erik thought to himself. "I

guess I'm a bit depressed myself, they were technically my family too..." He was

interrupted by a soft knocking the door to their room. The door slowly swung

open to reveal Elder Redding. He whispered, "Erik, you up?" Erik popped his head

up and nodded affirmatively. "Good. How's the big guy?" Erik whispered back,

"He's depressed, I think. But I think he'll be okay." The elder nodded and said,

"We should do something to help him with the dead." Erik grew wide-eyed and

blurted aloud, "No! Don't touch them!" The elder was caught off guard, but

played it cool. "Okay, son. We'll leave them be. You two go back to sleep. I'll

wake you four up around nine. I think everyone can use the extra rest after

yesterday's fun." Erik nodded as his adopted father turned to leave,

"Thanks...dad." Erik laid back down and snuggled back into Rush, who opened an

eye and grumbled, "thank you, brother." Erik chuckled and mumbled, "I figured

you were awake, saw your ears twitch when we started whispering." Rush nodded as

rolled over to get up. "Can't sleep. Want to walk," Rush asked Erik as he wiped

his face.

Erik sat up and stretched, "yeah. I don't think I can get back to sleep either.

A walk sounds good." Rush nodded and exited the bedroom with Erik shortly

behind, still barefooted. The two passed Elder Redding who appeared to be

falling back to sleep on the couch. The duo managed to creep their way toward

the front door as the elder said, "I'm not asleep, nor asking questions. Be back

before 0900." "Aye, sir," Erik responded. The young men left the apartment, on a

walk to wake themselves up and to get their minds back in gear.

They began their walk by heading East, toward the entrance they originally came

through. Their slow, somber pace allowed them to take in the full extent of

damage from the fight between them and the Enclave yesterday. Many of the

cargo-container apartments were now scalded and burnt in various places due to

munitions fire. Most of the quaint porches, decks, and clothes lines were now

gone, had gaping holes, were severly destroyed, or still smoldering. Even the

artificial sunlight seemed sad today, casting flitting beams through the haze of

the still-smoldering architecture. After passing the first set of apartments

after the "deluxe" one they camped in, they looked up to the next set

of stacked apartments. The eastmost apartment's deck was still in good

condition. Erik looked up to Rush, "fancy going up and getting a better look?"

Rush nodded, and so they did. The pair climbed up the rickety stairs, waving

light smoke out of their eyes. They stood side-by-side on a wooden porch, ten

feet above the floor, shielding their eyes in attempts to get a better idea of

what to expect.

"Looks like there's not much of a fire, or anything. Think it'll be a problem,"

Erik queried Rush. Rush shook his head and said, "No. Ventilation is good here."

Erik nodded as he continued to squint around. They continued looking around for

a few moments before Erik pointed out the black shipping container the Enclave

had left near the RobCo repair stations, close to the middle of "town." "We

gotta go check that out."

They descended the stairs again, and renewed their walk toward the center of the

indoor village. Rush was happy to see that the repair stations were still in

good shape; good news for the doctor.

They neared the black container the Enclave had left. It's contents were hastily

piled next to it: a RobCo Robot brain case still in its protective plastic

shell, half a dozen holotapes or so, a letter, miscellaneous ammunition, two

fresh plasma rifles, and a small silver clamshell case. That's what grabbed

Erik's interest first. The container itself was about seven inches by five

inches by three. "Whatcha think this is Rush?" Rush shrugged and picked up the

small weather-tight box, shaking it. There was a faint rattling inside, as if it

were full of small metal parts.

Rush inspected it closer, it had a logo of sorts on it. He'd seen it before; it

was a set of concentric circles with three fingers extending from each side in

black paint. Erik requested from Rush and looked at the logo. His eyebrows

raised quickly, "This's vault tech. Gotta be something good inside." He began

turning the box over in his hands, looking for a latch or keyhole. It had none

whatsoever, just a handle, and another logo on the back left-hand corner-this

one was similar, but instead of fingers, it was a bow tie that emanated from the

center of the circles. "Huh, that's odd. I don't see any way to get in this damn

thing..."

He scratched his head and continued to stare at the symbol. "Dunno what that is,

do you," he queried Rush who had wandered over to the container's lid. "Yes," he

grumbled as he pointed at the same logo on the lid of the box. "Well, okay then.

We still don't know what it is. Whatever, we'll just bring it back to the elder

when we're done." Rush nodded in agreement as they turned to leave with their

shiny, mysterious new toy. "Wait," Rush said, as he turned back to grab the new

brain case and the letter. "Fix grandfather?" Erik shrugged, "I dunno Rush, but

we can surely try." "Uh," Erik paused," why don't we just take the entire box

back? There's plenty of goodies here, we should share." Rush shrugged and began

to toss the items haphazardly into the black ballistics-proof case.

Though he did his best not show it, Rush was still quite depressed. Erik wasn't

sure how he knew, but he could just _feel_ it. He grabbed the brain case and

patted Rush on the back. Guessing his depression and wanton behavior was caused

by the loss of yesterday, he continued to pat Rush's back and said, "I know it

hurts, but we'll make sure they're sent off right...You have my word" Rush

turned to look at Erik and though to him, "I know we will...you would have been

proud to call them your family...I know I was." Erik nodded as they resumed

their walk, "If they're half as good of a guy you are, I'm sure I would." Rush

looked away and stared at the far end of the area where he'd found the elder and

his young clan mates.

Erik patted Rush a bit forcefully on the small of his back and beckoned that he

grab the other handle of the container. Rush nodded and the two initiated a trip

back to the apartment housing the Brotherhood.

They stayed quiet for a few long minutes before Erik's mind began to wander.

"Hey Rush, shouldn't this place be familiar to me? I don't remember living down

here, but it still kinda has a home-y feel to it..." Rush replied mentally, "we

lived here as pups. With mother, grandfather, and the rest of the clan." He

paused, drew a breath, then continued verbally, "fathers went scavenging outside

when you left. Didn't come back. Grandfather explained, made no sense." Erik

stopped walking and set his half of the cargo container down, followed by Rush.

Erik turned to face Rush and asked, "fathers? Our fathers? Donald and Thomas?"

Rush nodded affirmatively.

Rush sighed and picked up his explanation again mentally, "Father, was our

clan's alpha. Our current Alpha was the beta..." The longer he thought about the

past, the more depressed he got. Erik noticed the strain he was under as he was

carrying his emotions into Erik's mind. "Rush, why...does it bother you being

Beta so much?" Rush sighed, slumped his shoulders, and replied, "the Beta is the

right hand of the elder. I was trained to be the Beta since I was a pup, to take

father's place as Alpha one day. We're in charge of keeping the clan safe from

threats, leading hunting parties, and sorting out anyone that deems it necessary

to create issues. I've...failed in my duties. I wasn't here to protect them when

they needed me most. I was...with you."

Erik physically slumped with the new layer of guilt thrown on his shoulders. It

hadn't occurred to him that the joy he'd experienced of finding long-lost family

could potentially cause others pain, or even to perish. Rush pondered on the new

feelings he was feeling from Erik and then joined him in his renewed guilt.

"Apologies," Rush grumbled aloud. "Not your fault. Mine. Should have hurried

us." "Yeah, but...I was holding you up, being sick and all," Rush shook his head

firmly, picking up his half of the cargo box again, "Enough. Work." Erik picked

up his half and without another word; the duo slowly made their way back from

whence they came.

The two downtrodden men were slowly walking toward the apartment when the door

swung open. It was the elder. "I was beginning to get worried about you two.

Shouldn't've taken you so long..," he paused as he saw the look on Erik's face.

"What's wrong, son?" Erik and Rush sat the black container to the left of the

entrance. "Uh, nothing. Sir. Just, thinking about yesterday," he replied

quietly. "Ah, I see. You too Rush?" He nodded in reply. "Right then, lets get in

and we can talk about it over some coffee. How's that sound?"

They followed the elder into the double-wide apartment and sat at the small

square table near the kitchen while the elder dug around in the cabinets. The

apartment was nearly silent aside from the snoring coming from one of the

bedrooms and the elder's rummaging. "Grab my bag, would you," the elder asked

Erik. He said nothing, but nodded Rush-like and got up to grab his bag from near

the couch. "Look in the big pocket, should be a bag of ground coffee in there."

"Oh, is it real coffee or the other stuff?" The elder scowled and replied, "you

know as well as I do that we can't get the _real_ stuff any more. It's chicory."

Erik groaned under his breath as he removed the container of ground tree bark

from the elder's bag as requested. The elder had finally found a pot to boil the

coffee as Erik made his way back to the kitchenette. "Here, sir." "Thanks,

Erik."

Now, cheer up. You've always liked my coffee." Erik nodded. The elder took the

small box and added its contents to some water from the tap in the pot and put

the concoction on the stove to boil. "Ten minutes to feeling better, boys." He

gestured to Erik to resume his seat at the table as he himself took the third

chair. The elder looked at Rush and Erik, each of which were staring at the

table blankly. "Alright now you two. Enough of this moping. What's wrong?"

Neither said anything for a moment, then Erik started. "Well, sir," Erik paused

to look at Rush who didn't reciprocate the gesture, "we lost a good portion of

our family yesterday. We haven't gotten to find the elder of the clan to put

them to rest..." Rush looked up at this point and said, "Must find elder. Must

care for dead - my failures, sir."

The elder asked, "failures? What failures? I heard how you handled yourself

during the battle. You certainly have no reason to think you've failed in

battle-even if you did take a bullet, we all do now and again." Rush shook his

head, "Not battle. Failed clan." "What, the Enclave attack? Did you know they

were coming?" Rush shook his head again. "Then how the hell were you supposed to

prevent something you didn't know was going to happen?" Rush stared down at the

table again and muttered, "don't know. Dead don't care." The elder started to

argue back, but the "coffee" had started to boil over. He excused himself,

pulled the pot off of the burner, and divided the pot's murky contents among

three mugs. He grabbed one in each hand and handed them over to the boys before

turning to grab the last for himself.

"Drink up. It's stiff, but it'll have you feeling better in no time." Erik

nodded, picked his up, and blew across it. Rush stared at his, unsure if he

wanted anything to eat or not. His spurt of depression was doing a number on his

metabolism. The elder looked at Rush, "Drink up, son. That's an order," he said

gently. Rush conceded and mimicked Erik's motions. The drink was pretty damn

hot. And quite bitter as Rush found out. He grimaced as he sipped on it. Erik

saw Rush's discomfort and noted, "it's not that bad once you get used to it."

They all sipped in silence for a bit before the elder started in again. "So,

boys. I'm gonna send you two and Jenkins out to find out what happened to the

rest of your folks, and the doctor - if possible. I've got some old business to

sew up with 'em." Neither said nothing, but both nodded in the elder's

direction. It's what they'd planned on, and the elder knew it, although they

weren't planning on having Jenkins along.

When they'd all finished their "coffee," the elder collected the mugs and set

them aside. "Now then, let's get this business of the dead out of the way," the

elder paused and sighed, empathizing with their situation. "I know it's tough.

I've lost a lot of good men and women under my charge over the years - Johnson

being our most recent loss." Erik nodded somberly. "We've all got to help each

other to be strong and persevere. It's the only right thing to do in light of

their deaths - make them proud that we're still alive and kicking. And we can't

do that by moping around. They wouldn't want that, and I certainly don't

either." With his peace said, the elder got up and began washing the mugs,

leaving Rush and Erik to mull things over.

They sat at the table for a few moments more before the elder gave them their

orders. "Erik, don't you two get the other two knuckleheads up and we'll get our

day started?" Rush stared at the elder as Erik replied, "Aye, sir." "You," he

said toward Rush, "come here." Rush stood up uncertainly as Erik walked across

the apartment to awaken the other two Brothers in Steel. "Sir," Rush asked. The

elder looked up at him and said in a low stern voice, "you have a great

responsibility in your clan. You now have one with us as well. I will do

whatever you need me to, in order to keep your family safe. You are my family as

well now, and you will be treated as such. Do you understand?" Rush paused and

smiled lightly at the older man and hugged him. "Thank you sir." The elder

smiled and patted him on the back. "Enough of that initiate, go with Erik and

Jenkins and find your family. I'll take care of everything here."

Rush nodded again and padded over to Erik who had already entered the bedroom

and was violently shaking Jenkins. "Get up, you lazy bastard! We've got shit to

do, radioman." Jenkins rolled over to shake himself free of Erik and began

mumbling something about cranberries in response. "No, I'm not cranberries.

Now. Get. UP!" Erik punched him square in the kidney, electing a groan of pain

out of Jenkins. "Oh, God! Okay. Okay! I'm up. I'm up you son-of-a-bitch. Why the

hell'd you do that?!" Erik smirked in response, and said nothing. Rush was a bit

shocked to see Erik act violently against someone who wasn't shooting at him.

Rush thought to him, "why did you strike him? Is that show I should wake you?"

Erik chuckled and looked back to Rush, "No, no. Don't do that. It's just a thing

we do. We've always been hard on each other. He'll pay me back later, don't

worry." Rush was perplexed, but said nothing further. Erik patted Jenkins

stiffly where he punched him, "come on now. We've got a job, got civilians to

find." Jenkins groaned as he leveraged himself up and swung his legs over the

side of the bed. "Fine. Who's on the beat?" "Me, you, and the greenhorn."

Jenkins groaned again. "Ugh, fine." He looked up to Rush, "not gonna try and eat

me or anything are you?" Rush looked at him confusedly and shook his head.

"Humans are bitter." Erik laughed aloud at that, Jenkins didn't think it was

terribly funny. "He doesn't eat anything that doesn't try to eat him first,

right Rush," Erik asked with a gentle jab to the ribs.

Rush didn't reply - he was quite confused. Erik noticed the awkward look on his

muzzle and told him mentally, "Rush, it's a joke. I know you won't hurt Jenkins.

I think he knows that too, he's just trying to break the ice - get comfortable

being around you. You should try to laugh a bit." So, despite how he was

feeling, Rush tried to laugh aloud for Erik. His laughter came out as a train

wreck of short barks through nervousness. "Ah, hah. Haah. Haaa," Erik chuckled

awkwardly. "Right, get some clothes on Jenkins, we'll be ready to roll out in a

few."

"Good, " Franklin growled, to everyone's surprise. The cranky sharpshooter

rolled over and glared at the other three. "Get out. I'd like to get some more

sleep before more giant freaks start popping out of the woodwork." He rolled

back over and fluffed his pillow before closing his eyes. "You may as well get

up too, chef," the elder yelled from across the apartment. Franklin sighed

deeply and growled an "aye sir" before literally rolling out of bed.

Rush followed Erik outside, each taking a seat on the large cargo container

they'd brought back earlier while waiting for Jenkins. Only a few moments had

passed before they heard an angry Franklin complaining about the lack of coffee.

They couldn't make out what was being said, but they could tell he was quite

unhappy, he'd even mentioned the three mugs that were on the kitchen counter.

Erik chuckled a bit at his childish behavior. Rush looked over to Erik and

inquired mentally, "is he always like a pup?" Erik grinned and nodded. "Yeah,

he's a good guy though. Some days he's just insatiable. He'd put his neck on the

line for a fellow brother though, no questions asked."

Rush mentally noted the drastic differences between the four humans he'd met

only the last forty-eight hours. Erik: typically calm, but excitable and quite

easily embarrassed; the elder, a kindhearted man with a determination of steel;

Jenkins: jovial, but a bit skittish; and Franklin: well...he was Franklin. Erik

patted Rush on the shoulder to break his silence, "don't worry. They'll warm up

to you." Rush nodded in agreement as Jenkins exited the apartment, complete with

helmet under arm and pistol in hand.

"Hey Rambo, going on a hunt?" Jenkins shook his head and replied, "no, but I

don't like surprises either. Where's your gear?" Erik dipped his head, "shit.

One sec, lemme grab my bag." "Alright, hurry up. Oh, watch out for Frankie, he's

in quite a mood this morning." Erik nodded to the caution and walked back inside

to find his bag. Jenkins took Erik's spot on the cargo box and stared out across

the expansive apartment complex. "Hey, big guy. You live here?" Rush nodded and

replied aloud, "Twenty-five years. Twenty-six soon." Jenkins nodded and asked,

"you ever leave?" Rush shook his head negatively.

"Ah, well. If you stick with us, you'll get to see some neat stuff. Get some

good training too. Anyone tell you what we do?" Rush half-way nodded. Jenkins

explained anyway, "It's our job to scour the wastes and collect pre-war tech.

Keep the world safe from misusing it. Well, that's what the _official_

Brotherhood's all about. Down here, we don't really have much tech to scavenge,

so we focus on helping the locals as much as we can; farming, first aid,

protection from the Enclave, that sort of thing." Rush nodded again,

"humanitarians." Jenkins chuckled, "yeah, I guess."

Erik walked out to see Jenkins and Rush chatting. Well, it was more like Jenkins

was chatting _at_ Rush, but that was normal for Jenkins. "Okay chatterbox,

ready?" Jenkins stood up, Rush followed suit. "Yeah, let's get a move on

weasel." Rush shot up an eyebrow in Erik's direction. He responded, "we've got

nicknames for one another. Jenkins is 'needleboy,', I'm 'weasel,' and Franklin's

'bulletboy.' Pretty self-explanatory. Jenkins is our medic, I'm sneaky, and

Franklin's good at shooting things. Oh, also he's our chef back home, but he

doesn't like it when people call him chef. So we do to irritate him, when

necessary." Rush nodded and thought to himself, "why have extra names for each

other, aren't your birth names good enough?"

He put that thought aside for later discussion as they began to flesh out their

plan. "Okay," Erik started, "Rush where'd you take everyone to after the Enclave

came?" "Infirmary." "Okay, fine. I guess a better question would be if you think

they'd still be there." Rush pondered for a moment and replied, "no, would find

grandfather." Erik nodded, "I figured as much. He's should still be down at the

lab...Let's look there first." Rush and Jenkins nodded, Rush added, "infirmary

on the way."

The trio began to make their way toward the western exit of the apartment

complex. Just as they were squeezing through the half-open door, the elder and a

cranky Franklin were exiting the apartment. "That's quite enough, Franklin.

You're going to make yourself useful by helping me rummage through these

apartments. We're looking for anything useful: food, ammo, weapons, clothing,

holotapes, notes, files, anything. Franklin failed to respond but did nod curtly

as he stormed past the elder toward an apartment to the South.

Erik tugged at his Pip-boy, it's light wasn't putting much of a dent in the

darkness that was surrounding them. For some reason, the lights that the

robot-doctor had enabled days prior were off. It also seemed quite stuffy, maybe

the air circulation had failed too? He shifted his backpack and led the group

forward into the unknown. Well, actually the well-known; Erik had the updated

map on his Pip-boy.

They were currently walking westward at a slow pace. Erik and Rush were pretty

calm, but poor Jenkins wasn't handling the darkness and random industrial noises

too well. He fiddled around with his Pip-boy, forcing it to flash on it's light

as well. "How far've we gotta go, Erik?" "Dunno, a fur piece. This place's like

a damn Vault. Nothing but shifty hallways and dust for the most part. Cool

stuff's waaaay in the back." Jenkins sighed as they continued at their slow trek

through the murky, dark hallways toward the lab annex. Rush asked Erik mentally,

"is he always this nervous?" Erik replied, "he'll be fine, he doesn't handle the

dark too well." Rush noted man's fear of the dark as they continued to plod

westward past abandoned offices and restrooms.

Franklin had just finished kicking in another apartment door when he heard the

elder calling. "Hey Frank, I think I found something you'd like." Franklin

turned away from the now dented door to see what the elder was going on about.

He walked next door to a ground-floor apartment that was yellow at one time. "Ya

rang, sir?" The elder turned to face him and pointed Franklin in the direction

of the single-wide aparment's bedroom. "Tell me what you think of what I found."

Franklin shrugged and made his way into the bedroom. To his surprise, the elder

had laid out a well-kept bozar on the bed, complete with three full clips of

5.56mm rounds. "Sir, it's...it's beautiful. Where'd you find her?" The elder

smirked to himself, "under the bed, of all places. Surprising firepower for a

science installation, eh?" Franklin nodded, speechless. He'd never seen a bozar

in such good condition. He picked it up and armed it, staring through the

nearly-pristine scope, nearly drooling on his stained T-shirt. "I'm glad you

like it. Now you need to find one of your own," the elder said with nearly

undetectable sarcasm. Franklin knew better though, the elder was a plasma man,

always would be. "I guess sir, but how to do you plan to retrofit it to shovel

toroids of hot plasma down that barrel rather than five-point-five sixes?" The

elder shook his head in amusement and replied, "I'm not. Enjoy your late

birthday gift, Franklin," as he left to rummage through more of the apartment.

Franklin took his new baby, slung it on his back as he pocketed the clips, and

walked back to his own apartment with a fresh air of excitement as he stroked

the aluminum butt of the gun.

Another twenty minutes of plowing steadily through the darkness rewarded the

trio with no more than they'd started with. "Okay, seriously guys, how much

farther is it," Jenkins queried in a whiny tone. "Told you I don't know Jenkins.

Rush any idea?" His nod was invisible in the darkness, he replied verbally

instead. "Yes. Right ahead, seven doors, two lefts, twelve offices, then another

ten minutes." Jenkins sighed exasperatedly. "This place is ridiculous. Who needs

an installation this big?" Erik replied, "You've not been filled in? This used

to be the lead Naval research facility down here. They were doing all kinds of

stuff from genetic experimentation to advanced robotics. Supposedly had," Erik

paused to wipe a cobweb off of his face, "a full-time staff of a couple hundred

scientists and engineers. That doesn't even include the military staff on

board." Jenkins nodded in awe. "Shit, no wonder the elder wants it."

"Whacha mean," Erik asked. "Well, I assume he didn't send you down here for your

health. You know damn good and well he's been looking to expand our presence

down this way for the past few years now. I think he wants to get in good with

the traders between here and home. Whatsit...uh...Millard?" "You think so?

Millard's like a day-and-a-half north-northwest of here. Hell of a trade route

if you ask me." "I didn't but thanks anyway," Jenkins quipped. They'd just

passed their fifth door after the right and were nearing door six when they

heard a strangled yelp. All three men paused to strain their ears for the sound

again. They did, but it was a bit weaker than the first cry. Whatever was making

the sound, it was further down toward the lab and it sounded like it was in

pain.

They picked their pace up into a light run. Two offices went by, they took their

left, quickly followed by a second, then they halted as they heard the sound

again. It was much closer. Rush feared that it was one of the pups, lost and in

danger. Unfortunately, he was right. Three offices down the hall, they heard

another strangled yelp followed by the strange sounds of a monotone robot

rambling about cabbage. "Shit," Erik yelled as he broke into a sprint. Rush

joined him, shortly followed by Jenkins. "What's going on," Jenkins queried. His

question was ignored as Erik rammed through the wooden double doors. The scene

wasn't what they were expecting.

The doctor was deftly disregarding his oath of "do no harm." He had one of the

clan's two remaining pups by the throat in attempts to strangle the poor child.

The other was slumped across some rubble near a wall, a thin stream of blood was

running from its head into a small pool nearby. The doctor was adamantly

interrogating the pup about its whereabouts two weeks ago and why someone named

"cabbage" hadn't reported in yet. The pup was easily two feet above ground,

struggling for every breath. It couldn't reply or even defend itself. "LET 'EM

GO," Erik screamed as he and Rush jointly tackled the robot, causing him to drop

the pup to the ground. She fell to the ground, grasping at her throat, trying

desperately to regain her breath. Jenkins rushed to her side, ignoring the fight

that was quickly escalating between the doctor, Erik, and Rush.

She looked up to Jenkins with icy blue eyes and gasped a plea of assistance. Not

for her, but for her brother that was off to the side. "Please," she repeated as

she continued to struggle catching her breath while simultaneously dragging

Jenkins toward the other pup that was sprawled on the rubble. "Okay, okay. Hold

on. Let me check you first, okay?" She shook her head violently, forcing her

into a coughing fit. "Him," she pointed in her brother's direction. Jenkins

pulled his pack down from his shoulders and ripped the zipper open. He removed

his doctor's bag and grabbed the stethoscope. "He looks rough, but hopefully

it's only superficial," Jenkins thought. He glanced at the boy a second time

then quickly changed his superficial diagnosis. He had defensive wounds on his

hands, arms, and chest. At least one of his legs were fractured, if not

completely broken, and he had head trauma of some sort.

"Poor guy," he said aloud. "Let's see if we can do something about that bleeding

first. Jenkins slowly leaned over the boy to see if he was breathing properly;

he was quite surprised when the little fuzzball levered an eye open amidst the

waterfall of blood from his head and even managed to growl a bit. Jenkins

smirked at his determination and said, "don't worry son. I'm a friend. I'm here

with Rush to help take care of you and yours." The boy's sister nodded at

Jenkins then back to her brother to validate his statement. The boy relaxed a

bit. Perhaps a bit too much as he let down his guard, he also lost

consciousness. As his eyes rolled back in his head, Jenkins sighed. "Damnit."

Fortunately, the boy's breathing was steady, albeit a bit shallow.

Erik and Rush were doing their best to detain the doctor, but he certainly

wasn't making it an easy task. The doctor's brain case had turned a sickly,

pussy, yellow. His speech was much less refined that before, as evidenced by the

strings of obscenities that were flowing from his speech box. "You

son-of-a-bitch tell me where the cabbage is or I'll this flea-ridden mutt's

whore of a mother!" The doctor's threats only served as fuel for Erik and Rush.

Erik, who was hanging off of the top of the Robobrain, was doing his best to

avoid the doctor's treads while fiddling in his control box. Rush was playing as

a distraction, deflecting the doctor's flailing arms with his own clawed

defenses.

Jenkins gently held the boy's head up as he was blotting away the blood stemming

from a deep laceration on his forehead. It needed stitches something fierce and

Jenkins was afraid they'd used the last of the ketamine on Erik yesterday. He

looked to the girl, "dear, what's your name?" She looked shocked for a second,

surprised by the niceness of this stranger. "Harmony," she replied. "Okay

Harmony, what's this fellow's name here?" He glanced at her older brother and

said, "Dorian. Ian for short," she offered. "Okay, good. Thank you. Can you do

me a favor and look in my pack here," he motioned to his backpack on his back,

"and look for a small glass jar with a label of 'ketamine'? It should have an

orange label on it." She nodded and went to dig through his bag as he turned

back to Ian. He pulled a brown bottle of iodine, opened it, and began to apply

it liberally to Ian's forehead. The gash wasn't actually as bad as it had first

appeared. It was about four inches or so long and maybe a quarter inch deep,

what worried him the most was that it appeared to originate from near Ian's left

eye. It was so swollen that Jenkins couldn't tell if it was damaged or not.

"Better safe than sorry," he thought as he saturated the wound with iodine.

"You find it yet," Jenkins asked Harmony. She said nothing but handed him a

small glass vial of Ketamine. It was still about half full. "Oh, good! This'll

help him a lot. Thank you." She nodded and sat next to Jenkins. He handed her an

old T-shirt, "hold this on his forehead, keep a lot of pressure on it. We wanna

get that bleeding slowed down so I can sew him up." She nervously took the shirt

and did as she was told.

By this point, Erik and Rush were having a hell of a time with the doctor.

They'd manage to break through the thin wall into the next room. Rush was doing

his best to keep the doctor distracted but it wasn't going so well. The doctor

had managed to rip Erik off of his back and threw him back through the wall into

the previous office, leaving him and Rush to tango. Rush screamed a war cry that

would have given a deathclaw goosebumps as he charged. He took hold of one of

the doctor's flailing arms and ripped it completely off, throwing it to the

side. The doctor began screeching, as if he were a wounded animal, enticing

Rush's rage even more. Rush leaped over the doctor, using his brain case as a

pivot point, landed behind him and manged to rip open the control panel on the

back. He didn't know what he was looking for but, Erik did. He thought hard and

quick to Erik's mind, "Which one brother, quickly!" Erik was still stunned from

being thrown like a rag doll but was able to reply. "Rip out the two big chips

and the blue cable. Should kill his motors but leave his brain working." Rush

quickly did as he was instructed, deftly removing the servo controllers and the

uplink from the doctor's brain to his body, isolating him to his speech centers.

Rush tossed the chips in Erik's direction, assuming he'd want them later.

Jenkins was making progress with Ian. After administering the Ketamine to the

gash on his forehead, he was able to start stitching up without much issue. The

wound was still bleeding badly and needed constant mopping, but the boy should

have no issue recovering from it in due time. After about thirty or so stitches,

he'd finally closed up the gash across most of Ian's forehead. He was still very

worried about his left eye. Since it was swollen and the bleeding had gone down,

he took a quick breath, smiled at Harmony, then hollered at Rush. "You get that

damn clown taken care of yet?"

Rush was bodily dragging the doctor back through the wall when Jenkins cried

out. "Yes, settled." Jenkins nodded and replied, "I think I found some of your

kind. One's banged up real bad, the other seems okay. Rush's adrenaline pumped

back up when he saw how damaged Ian was. He ignored Erik as he leaped over him

and took position at Jenkin's left. Jenkins could damn near feel the worry

exuding from Rush. "Don't worry big guy, I've got 'em covered. Go make sure

Erik's okay" Rush paused to glance at Harmony who nodded at him before he went

to Erik's side.

The doctor, who was silent following the scuffle, started rambling again.

"Cabbage, cabbage, who's got the cabbage. Has Colonel Mustard called in with the

plan for Professor Plum yet? They've got to meet in the billiard room for their

plan. Their plan, their plan, for the candelabra. The candelabra so sweet, so

innocent, very dangerous to play with fire." He went silent again aside from the

sound of his brain's suspension gel's sickly bubbling.

Jenkins shook his head at the rambling as he worked on the deeper lacerations in

Ian's hands. This kid was damn lucky. None of the lacerations had damaged any

tendons, as far as he could tell. Stitches upon stitches, bandages and iodine,

and fifteen minutes later, Jenkins had Ian pretty sewn up. Literally. Jenkins

hollered over to Rush who was sitting with Erik. Erik had managed to catch his

breath and was now letting Rush pick splinters out of his back. "How's weasel?"

Erik replied for Rush, "I'm no worse for wear, Jenkins, thanks. How's your new

patients?"

Jenkins paused to sit up and turn toward Erik. Surprisingly well, actually. They

make you guys out of stiff stuff down here. The pair are doing good, he paused

to remember their names, "Uh, this one here's Harmony, and the bloody one here's

Dorian." Rush nodded and looked at Erik, "our cousins." Erik chuckled sadly,

"I'd sure like to meet my family without having the hell beat out of me every

damn time we have a reunion."

Jenkins chuckled at that and turned back to Harmony. "I've got everything

handled here, why don't you go visit with your long-lost cousin, huh?" Harmony

nodded and tousled Jenkin's short black hair, "thank you," she said sweetly

before making her way to Rush and Erik. He shook his hair back into shape after

she finished and went back to work on Ian. All that was left was to figure out

if this was a clean break or not before splinting it up. He began to feel around

Ian's damaged shin as he came back around.

Jenkins was just as surprised as Ian was, as he didn't remember meeting a

doctor, let alone a human. He went wide eyed and began to whimper in fear. Rush

left Erik momentarily and thought to young Ian, "worry not. I am here Dorian.

You're quite safe. Doctor Jenkins is a friend of mine, he's taking care of your

wounds." Ian immediately stopped stared at Rush. "Rush!" Ian exclaimed excitedly

before initiating his rapid-fire question mode. "You've been gone so long. And

then grandfather went crazy. We were getting worried. Can you fix grandfather?

Who are these guys?"

Rush glanced back at the suspiciously quiet robot and replied, "Yes, possibly.

Cousin Erik will assist." "Is cousin Er..," he stopped mid-inquiry to wail in

pain as Jenkins had taken the liberty to re-set his broken shin. "Sorry buddy,

had to be done or it won't heal right." Jenkins got up to find something to

splint the boy's leg with. "Don't. Move. I've got to restrain that leg of yours

or I'll have to reset it again. You hear?" Ian nodded nervously. "Good."

Harmony, who had been cringing at Ian's cries, resumed Rush's work of picking

splinters and debris out of Erik. "Cousin Erik," she paused to sniff his hair,

"you smell like Rush." He chuckled a reply, "I suppose so, we've spent the past

few days together, and I could probably use a shower." She shook her head as she

gently pried a particularly long splinter out of Erik's shoulder. "No, smell

like Cousin Rush. Like family." "Oh, well. Yeah. I guess I would, we are family,

right Rush?" He nodded from nearby the debris pile that Erik had made as the

flew through the wall. "Yes, Ian and Harmony, our uncle's children." "I have an

uncle too?"

Rush nodded, "Did. Until yesterday." The pups looked at each other at the

reminder of their father and both cried a tiny heart-breaking howl. Rush and

soon after, Erik joined them in a moment of remembrance of their fallen family.

Jenkins paused to reflect on the fact that he, much like Erik, had no family to

speak aside from the Brotherhood, but quickly shook that fact off as he found a

few pieces of rebar, along with some of the wiring from the robot's arm and the

bloody T-shirt, would make a great splint.

"I hope y'all are done, I've still got work to do," Jenkins said with a bitter

note. Rush stood up from his kneeling position and nodded to Jenkins. "Please,

continue." Jenkins said nothing further, but took Rush's position kneeling next

to the boy. "Alright, now this isn't going to be comfortable, but it'll keep

your leg in one piece while it heals. Okay?" Ian nodded in a familiar Rush-like

manner and said nothing. Jenkins laid the items down next to Ian as he began to

make a splint - rebar on each side, recycled wires to keep everything steady,

and the T-shirt to keep the whole conglomeration from chaffing too badly. Ian

didn't even wince as Jenkins was tying everything down.

"Okay, let's get you up, now," Jenkins said as he stood up. He held out a hand

to Ian, who ignored it. He struggled for a few moments with his newly-bound leg,

but was able to use the wall behind him to get up and lean against. "Well, okay

then," Jenkins scoffed. Ian winced a bit as he put more weight on his fractured

leg, but overall he was pretty sturdy. Rush looked over to Ian and smiled. "You

will heal well. Thank Jenkins." Ian looked away, then mumbled, "thanks," to the

wall. Rush shook his head and asked aloud, "where is elder?" Ian failed to

reply, but Harmony answered, "dunno. Haven't seen elder since she and

grandfather were talking in the lab. Then...we came here." She paused and rubbed

her neck, "Rush, are you sure you can fix grandfather?" Rush shook his head and

said, "Don't know. We will try."

With that, the conversation died as they all turned to look at the doctor. He'd

been too quiet for too long, considering that not twenty minutes ago he was

screaming about vegetables and some colonel. In fact, he'd been perfectly quiet.

Eerily quiet. Erik was so unnerved by the sudden silence that he got up and

walked over to the robot to inspect him. "Doctor? Doctor? Doctor...doctor!" The

doctor failed to respond. His sickly and congealed bio-gel didn't even bubble as

it had during their previous encounter. Erik shook the robot violently

in anger at what he'd done to the young'uns. "Why. Won't. You. Respond?!" His

query was punctuated by his repeated strikes on the doctor's panels and brain

case.

Erik stopped and huffed. Then he heard a sound that was familiar at first, then

grew quickly into something he'd hoped to never hear again.

"Unrepairable damage detected due to external aggression. RobCo

Self-Destruct-Intellectual-Property-Protection Protocol 47b Initiated.

All organic lifeforms should evacuate to a safe distance of 360 meters or

greater. Protocol 47b will commence in thirty seconds.

Please contact your local RobCo administrator or local authorized RobCo

technician for assistance."

"Thirty." "Twenty-nine."

"Wh..what," Erik stammered excitedly. Get out! GET OUT!"

"Twenty-six."

He and Jenkins hoisted up Ian, ***twenty-five*** Rush snatched up Harmony, and the

three men sprinted out through the collapsed wall and down the hall

*twenty-four* toward the bio lab.

Erik and Jenkins had hoisted Ian up by his armpits, both sprinting madly and

ignoring his wails of pain. They made it past two offices.

***Eighteen***

They continued to sprint as fast as their legs would carry them, Harmony was

whimpering loudly into Rush's left ear as he huffed just in front of Erik and

Jenkins.

***Ten***

Two more offices, a couple of forgotten bundles of cables, and a bathroom zoomed

by.

***five***

Just as they swerved left into an ajar office door numbered five-oh-eight...

***zero***

There was strong vacuum of air followed by a deafening blast and a sweltering

wave of heat, punctuated with sparkling plasma that followed the robot's

detonation, knocking them down as Erik reached to close the door behind them.


	10. 10: I'll Have Mine Rare

################################################################################

## CHAPTER TEN : I'll Have Mine Rare or Does This Come With Pickles? ##

################################################################################

The crew of six fell into the office as the wave of pressurized air and

particles blew in from the detonation of the RoboBrain. It was the last time

their grandfather would attempt to murder them...hopefully.

"Fer fuck's sake," Jenkins slurred as he held his head - his forehead had a

minor laceration that was threatening to bleed into his eyes. He kept wiping at

it as he got up beside the freshly dented desk to see what kind of shape the

others were in. Given the strength of the blast, they were doing surprisingly

well.

Ian and Harmony were both whimpering in a combination of discomfort and fear -

Erik had landed on Ian's freshly broken leg and a limp Rush had pinned Harmony

down onto the cold tile floor after shielding her from the blast. Jenkins

stepped over Ian who looked up with a pitiful whimper, "why is he so heavy?"

Jenkins smirked, trying to not laugh, "dead weight's funny like that." He bent

down, forcing the room to spin a little, and pried Erik off of Ian's legs. He

patted Erik's face as he rolled him over, "hey. Wake up you lazy bum. We've got

wounded and work to do." Erik pried his lids open and stared up at Jenkins,

"Ugh. Why're you bleeding all over. You okay?" Jenkins nodded and wiped his

forehead again with a blood-smeared gauntlet.

"Shit," Erik muttered as he reached to the desk to lever himself up. "Rush.

Rush! Wake up!" Erik's shouting was useless. He wobbled over to Rush and looked

over to Jenkins for assistance. "Gimme a hand here." Jenkins nodded again and

helped Erik to roll Rush off of a struggling Harmony, taking care to keep his

head from moving too much. She sat up after she was freed and began to shake

Rush feverishly, "cousin Rush. Wake up!" Unfortunately, her concern wasn't going

to bring him back from black.

"What happened to him?" Jenkins shrugged as he began to pry open one of Rush's

eyelids. His amber eyes were rolled back in his skull. "Looks like he's out," he

assumed after quickly glancing around and noticing the basket ball-sized dent

in the desk. "Must've smacked the desk pretty hard." Jenkins looked at Harmony

and smiled, "let's not move him too much until I've examined him, okay? Why

don't you go see how Ian is for me?" She nodded curtly, got up, and did as

requested. Now that she was out of the way, Jenkins could perform a better

examination. He began by feeling Rush's neck for tenderness, anything

out-of-place, or broken. He was pleasantly surprised that nothing seemed out of

the ordinary. As Jenkins was hovering over Rush's head, he came to with a groan.

He looked up at Jenkins who was still manipulating his neck, blinked a couple of

times and grumbled, "mmmm, feels nice." Jenkins chuckled, "well, sir. That'll be

fifty caps. How do you feel? Can you see straight? How many fingers am I holding

up?" Rush squinted and correctly replied "three. Maybe." "Close enough, let's

get you sitting up, big boy."

Jenkins moved from over Rush as he and Erik both extended a hand to help him up.

Both men grabbed an arm and pulled him up into a sitting position. The quick

movement make the room tilt and wobble strangely to Rush who was quite paler

than normal. Harmony looked over from Ian who was massaging his tender leg and

noticed Rush's paleness; "uh oh." "Uh oh, What?" Jenkins immediately regretted

the question. Rush doubled over and began heaving onto his boots. "Ugh, he's

worse than I'd hoped ," Jenkins muttered in slight disgust. Erik knelt down next

to Rush and rubbed his back in small circles as what little stomach contents he

had surged up. "Go check on Dorian, Jenkins. Rush'll be okay...It's not like

he's got a crushed skull or anything..."

Jenkins sighed with a nod and attempted to knock some of Rush's bile off of his

steel greaves and boots as he took a few short steps over to where Harmony

was sitting next to Dorian. "How're you two," he asked as he squatted down next

to Harmony. Harmony didn't respond but wrinkled her nose and nodded as she

gently patted Ian on the leg, causing him to wince. "Oh, that doesn't

look great. Let me have a look here." Jenkins knelled over Ian's splinted leg

and felt around where the break was in his shin. It had swelled about

fifty per-cent larger than what it was after he'd reset it. "Yeah, that's not

good. I guess it doesn't help that Erik's fat ass landed on you," he said with a

slight chuckle. Erik cut his eyes over at Jenkins and squinted angrily. His

aggravated glare was interrupted by another dry heave from Rush.

"Okay buddy, this is getting ridiculous," Erik muttered as he resumed rubbing

and patting Rush's back. "Hey Jinxie, look. If you're feeling up to it, the

lab's not farther on down the hall. There should be some medical supplies in

there. My coat should be in the back room in there - there's a stim or two

in the inside pocket. I'll stay here with the young'uns and Rush here. At the

very least, we need to find a bite to eat..." Jenkins stood up and turned to

face Erik, "yeah, I guess so, but you'll owe me one." Erik nodded, "thanks

buddy." Jenkins nodded again as he turned to leave through the scorched doorway.

Although they'd heard some sort of rumbling in the distance earlier, Elder

Redding and Franklin were oblivious to the other's predicament. Franklin was

digging through his fifth apartment; it was on the north-east side of the

complex, near the office and Rush's abode. It's yellow paint had long faded and

flaked away. As he entered through the screened door, he was quite surprised to

find that, unlike the other apartments, this one was well kept. There was almost

no dust to speak of; it smelled faintly of roses, lavender, and a hint of dogs.

As he tread slowly into the double-wide apartment, he got the feeling that

someone had been living there recently; there were plates with morsels of food

on the small square kitchen table, children's toys and books were scattered near

a bookshelf, and all three beds were made up and dust-free. "Who the hell's

livin' in a shithole like this with kids," Franklin thought aloud.

No sooner than he got that thought out, he heard the elder hollering for him.

"Franklin, where are you? Let's have a bite." Franklin strode back through the

door and yelled back, "Aye, sir!" He took a moment to stretch in the artificial

sunlight of the complex before taking his sweet time walking back to their

temporary base. As he swung open the door, he saw the elder was wearing a hell

of a grin. "Uh, sir? Find something worthwhile?" The elder nodded, "Found a

stash of snack cakes, about thirty tins of Mentats, a six-pack of Nuka, a few

holotapes, and what I suspect are blueprints for something you may be interested

in. How 'bout you?" "Uh, yeah. Got some mentats, a bushel of holotapes, found

some notes on some sort of research they were doin' here; didn't understand it,

and uh, a plasma rifle under a bed next to what I assume is Erik's bag?"

"You got it with you?" "Yeah," Franklin replied as he hoisted it off of his left

shoulder, "here." The elder opened it the main pocket and dug around. "Yup,

it's Erik's." Franklin stared blankly at the elder, "how'd you know?" The

elder pulled out a photo of himself, Erik, Franklin, and Jenkins on Erik's first

hunting trip at age twelve. "He never leaves it behind. Reminds him of his

family, he says." Franklin took the photo from the elder and smiled at the

memory that surfaced: a cool autumn day had blown in from the North bringing

with it some fowl and a more than a few creatures on the prowl for mates. They'd

been lucky enough to find a pair of bucks fighting over a doe and decided to

finish the fight for them. That was Erik's first kill, aside from training with

the dummies back at the base. They'd even gone so far as to draw some blood

from one of the bucks and do a up some war paint on themselves as a rite of

passage. Franklin smiled inwardly and handed the photo back. "Better times."

Elder Redding nodded in agreement, "good eating too." "Speaking of, elder. You

said something about a bite?" The elder nodded, "how's about we have some

snack cakes and Nuka with half an MRE?" "Beats starving I guess," Franklin

scoffed. As they milled around in the apartment, gathering chairs and plates,

Elder Redding asked, "you said something about research material, right?"

Franklin nodded, "yeah, I didn't understand it any further than I coulda thrown

it though. Genetic experiments I guess." "You see any names attached to it," the

elder asked. "Uh, dunno, here," Franklin muttered as he dug through Erik's

backpack for the files.

"Yeah, here ya go." Franklin tossed a stained manila folder on the table,

spilling some of its contents amongst the guts of a previously hermetically

sealed MRE and a handful of Fancy LadÂ© snack cakes. He reached for one of the

chocolate-frosted snacks as the elder began to leaf through the ancient papers.

As Franklin gobbled his first cake and reached for a second snack cake, the

elder squinted at what he assumed was pages of genetic code interspersed with

hand-written scrawls in faded black ink. They seemed to be in some sort of code.

He didn't recognize any of them, unfortunately. "Should give the scribes a run

for their money," he muttered to himself.

Franklin looked over after washing down his snack cake with a swig of Nuka, "you

think we should go lookin' after them?" The elder looked up from the codes and

shook his head. "They can fend for themselves. Enjoy the break while you can. I

have the feeling that you're going to have your hands full once we get back

home." Franklin raised an eyebrow at the elder's comment but decided to eat a

third two-hundred-year-old cake rather than argue.

Rush had finally stopped dry heaving. After inspecting his cranium, Erik had

decided that some swelling had gone down. Harmony sat opposite of Erik and Rush;

she and Ian had both propped themselves against the cool metal desk. They

thought back and forth to one another, "What do you think of him?" "I dunno."

"Me either, seems nice though, reminds me of cousin Rush." "Yeah, me too. Why's

he not got fur like us? What's that glowy thing on his arm?" "Dunno..." Harmony

halted their conversation and instead turned it toward their subject. "Cousin

Erik?"

Erik, who was preparing to send a radio to Jenkins, looked up from his Pip-Boy.

"Yeah? Everything okay?" Harmony and Ian nodded nearly simultaneously. "How is

cousin Rush?" Rush was wobbling a bit as if he were drunk, but had thankfully

stopped vomiting and dry heaving. Erik pulled Rush's bile-stained muzzle to one

side to widen an eyelid. Rush's eyes were still dilated. "Well, he's got a

concussion, but he doesn't seem to be getting any worse.. He's not bleeding from

his ears or anything, so I don't think there's any serious swelling going on.

He's just got to shake it off."

The two cubs nodded slowly, again nearly in tandem; it was a bit unnerving.

Harmony picked up her line of inquiry, "Why do you smell like cousin Rush?" "Ah,

well, like I said earlier, it's probably because we've been been spending a lot

of time together recently." She shook her head, "no. You smell like us, the

clan." "Oh, uh. Well, I reckon it's because I'm your kin. Rush and I are

half-brothers. Apparently you two and me and Rush are second cousins...I think.

I don't really know the specifics. I didn't know I even had any siblings until I

met Rush earlier this week, let alone cousins."

She nodded, continuing. "Do you know what happened to grandfather?" Ian's ears

perked up a bit at that question. Erik replied, "Well..I. I don't know, but I'm

pretty sure he couldn't've made it through that blast. It was part of his body's

programming to protect its secrets by exploding like it did...there's no way his

brain could've survived a blast like that."

Ian looked at his lap after Erik responded, but Harmony continued on in her

inquiry. "Are there more like you and Doctor Jenkins?" Rush nodded to Harmony's

question, making the room slosh slightly. Erik patted Rush on the back and

replied for him, "yeah. There're two more humans like me that came here to help.

One is the man that raised me, my adopted father, Elder Marshall Redding. The

other is a man Jenkins and I grew up with; James Franklin. He taught us to

track animals and shoot weapons to defend and feed ourselves. He's rough on the

outside, but he's a good guy at heart."

"Can I ask some questions of you two?" Harmony was readying another question

then quickly stowed it. "Uh, okay," she paused to look over to Ian. He nodded

his okay. "Uh, well," Erik fumbled. "Have y'all lived down here forever? Have

you ever left this facility?" The siblings shook their heads one after the

other. "Not allowed," Harmony said sadly. "Only a few were allowed to leave.

Mommy and Daddy went all the time to go hunting for the clan. Not anymore

though..."

Erik nodded, "what about the elder what's she do?" Harmony sighed, "she made us

study. A lot. Made us read and do math and boring stuff." Ian chimed in with a

smile, "the math part was bad. I liked the science stuff though. Mixing all

those things together was fun." Harmony nodded and continued, "the elder was our

clan's teacher. She also settled all of the arguments in the clan." Harmony

paused and smiled mischievously at Rush, "but cousin Rush knows more than anyone

about that."

Rush, who trying to shake off the remnants of a concussion, nodded in

agreement. "Never agreed," he grumbled back to Erik. "Huh, I wouldn't've

guessed, you seem pretty laid-back until you get angry about something," Erik

replied. Rush nodded in the children's direction, "must be good example for

cubs."

"Cousin Erik, what's the outside like?" Ian and Rush both perked up at Harmony's

question. "Uh, well. That's a tough question. The outside's a lot of things:

at night, it's beautiful. You can see millions of bright, shining stars

twinkling in the sky. During the day, provided the weather's not bad, you can

see for miles across the wastes. My favorite time to be outside in during the

fall when the living trees that are left start to change and drop their leaves."

Harmony sighed at what must be a romantic landscape. Erik continued, "it can

also be a very dangerous place. Since the war long ago, people have been hurting

each other to get what they want. There're murderers, rapists, psychos, slavers,

druggies, and worse out there. Not everyone knows how to live with others -

some're too self-centered to care about anyone other than themselves. Lots of

issues with the outside world."

The two children stared at Erik; Ian whimpered slightly, "I...don't want to go

outside anymore..." Rush spoke on Erik's behalf, "not all are bad. Erik and his

clan protect others." He nodded back at Erik. "Uh, yeah! I'm a member of a clan

called the 'Brotherhood of Steel.' We work to protect the people living in our

town from people that want to harm others. When we're not scouting for supplies

or technology-which my job-,we try to help people that are sick, or hungry, or

homeless or whatever. To be honest, we're not really like any other group of

people in the Wastes. Not even really like other Brotherhoods in the other

places left in America."

The children nodded. Ian asked, "why do you have to scout? Do your elders not

bring things back for you?" Erik shook his head, "no...not really, or not any

more anyway. We've lost a fair portion of our members in the last few years due

to various things: deathclaws, yao guai, the Enclave, raiders, and such. It's my

job to find new things for our clan that we can use to keep us safe, or to make

our existing equipment better. That's why I came here. I was told there was some

sort of information down here that we could use to help a lot of people on the

outside...I'm starting to wonder if that's true though. I've only found some

mysterious holotapes, a few letters from old Doctor Hawthorne, and some other

science-y stuff that I can't even begin to understand."

Rush reached back to tousle Erik's hair, "found us, brother." Erik genuinely

smiled and nodded, "yeah, found my family, too."

Jenkins was sloughing through another dark hall when he finally decided to radio

Erik. "Erik, come in. It's Jenkins. I think...I'm lost." He didn't get

a reply, just static. "Damnit Erik. I could use a hand here." No response.

Jenkins sighed a low "fuuuuuck" to himself. "Wish I'd asked Erik if he had a

copy of the schematics for this damn rat's nest. Stupid scribes mangled mine

apparently. 'Contact an administrator' my ass." As he continued to walk through

the stuffy hallway, he decided to try Erik one more time. "Erik, this is

Jenkins. Are you there?" No reply came through his Pip-Boy.

As he'd been whining to his radio, his feet had been carrying him through the

halls on their own. They'd actually managed to carry him just past an open door

and nearly trip him on scattered components of a terminal scattered across a

stained concrete floor.

There were small droplets of oxidized blood drops near the wall. He was

absentmindedly poking at his Pip-Boy's screen when it notified him of a new

radio signal. It was a broadcast on the emergency radio channel: a prerecorded

statement not unlike something that belonged on a holotape.

" Notice: Specimen tank number twelve contaminated. Warning: Specimen number

twelve health stats borderline. Repeating... Notice: Specimen tank number twelve

contaminated. Warning: Specimen number twelve heath stats borderline.

Please..."

"The hell's this all about," Jenkins though aloud. He peeked in through the

oxidized door frame and spied what appeared to be a lab, complete with large

vats of glowing...stuff. One of the ones in the far corner was different from

the others though; it wasn't as bright as the others. His interest piqued and

slightly irritated by the looping broadcast, Jenkins wandered into the lab to

investigate. As he neared the Northwest corner of the large room, he noticed why

that specimen tank was so much darker. There was actually a specimen in it! It

looked a bit like Rush did - longish limbs with a healthy amount of muscle.

Although, the one floating in the tank was a bit more slender than Rush

and had a larger chest. Maybe it was female? Was it alive?

He actually went as far as to tap on the glass of the specimen tank. Who was

this, interrupting her rejuvenation?

Jenkins clacked on the glass again, "Hello?" She reached out to place a palm

against the inside of the glass door to show she was indeed alive and

responsive. Jenkins recoiled momentarily at the response - he wasn't really

expecting one. "Uh..hello? Are you...alive in there? Do you need help? I'm a

medic...I can try to help..." The female inside the specimen tank tapped twice

on the glass then sluggishly gestured through the thick gel toward the terminal

that was attached to the right-hand side.

Jenkins meandered around to the side and suspiciously tapped at the terminal. To

his surprise it was in working order and even offered him a few prompts:

" Magnolia Terminal Server 07

Specimen Management

Tank 12

Specimen Statistics

Release Specimen

Cleanse Specimen Tank"

He chose "Release Specimen."

A vacuum pump nearby spun up with a sick sucking sound. Within thirty seconds,

the tank was nearly completely drained of its azure, oxygen-rich gel and given a

quick spray down with sterilized water. After its rinse cycle was complete, the

door on the cylindrical tank slid forward and up, revealing a furred female who

Rush strongly resembled. The specimen stumbled through the inch-thick threshold,

she grumbled, blinking her almost-orange eyes. "Wer stort meinen Schlaf? Wer

sind Sie?!" Jenkins was flabbergasted, "Uh, sorry. What? I wanted to make sure

you were okay..."

She glared at him and shook her head, repeating her question, "Wer. Sind. Sie?"

Jenkins shook his head, "I don't understand you..." She shook her head

exasperatedly, sending droplets of water flying from her fur. She patted her

chest, "Elena." "Oh! Okay. I'm Jenkins, Elena." She nodded and pointed to the

Brotherhood of Steel logo on his chest plate. "Erik," she questioned.

Jenkins was surprised. "Erik? How do you know him?" She answered his question

with a nod and a question of her own, "Wo ist Rush und my kinder? Sind Sie mit

Erik?" "You know Rush too? Who _are_ you," Jenkins asked bewildered. She pushed

past Jenkins as she shook the last of the water from her coat. She muttered

"Muss meine Kinder zu finden..." as she began to make her way toward the exit.

"Look, Ms. Elena, at least let me look at some of those lacerations. Some of

them look pretty deep." She completely ignored the lesser creature bleating at

her until it gently grabbed her left shoulder. She didn't appreciate that at

all. Spinning around with a snarl and a pant-soiling growl, she snapped her

maw near the end of Jenkins' nose and shouted "Nicht!" He froze in place and

stared, wide-eyed at her momentarily before whispering an apology. The elder

squinted at him, then very slowly waded through some basic English after backing

away a few inches. "Where my children?"

Jenkins blinked a few times then replied, "Children? Who, Melody and Ian?" She

nodded abruptly. "They're with Rush and Erik, I was on my way here to get some

medicine for the lot of them." A flash of panic streaked across her maw as she

demanded: "Show me!" "Uh, okay, sure. Just remember, I can't show you where they

are if you kill me or anything," Jenkins mumbled sheepishly. He started to walk

back toward the hall and paused, "Do you know where the 'back' area is here?

Erik said there's some medicine in there..." The elder silently pointed Jenkins

toward the North wall where the walnut double doors hung slightly ajar. "Thanks,

uh, be right back." Jenkins jogged off to the back room while the elder stood in

place and waited on the irritating human.

Jenkins scrambled around the back room-his stomach churned at the faint scents

of vomit and copper. He finally found Erik's trench coat in the bathroom as

well as the stimpacks that were in the inner pocket. He donned the coat and

rushed out to meet the elder, even thought he wasn't sure it in was in his best

interests. He stopped to her left, "I'm ready, if you are, ma'am." She nodded

through a knitted brow and slitted yellow eyes as she waited for him to lead.

It was a long walk back to the office that the four clan members were in. The

elder refused to answer any of Jenkins' questions, let alone look at him in a

way that didn't make him think he was going to bleed to death from the daggers

she was staring. After a few wrong turns and referencing his Pip-Boy multiple

times, they finally found the correct hall that housed the safe haven containing

Rush, Erik, Harmony, and Ian.

As they neared the office, the duo heard laughter. It was the laughter of

children. Jenkins smiled inwardly, as it had been a long time since he heard

laughter that was so innocent. Erik was telling his furred companions about the

time he and Jenkins had gotten drunk and lost in the red light district of a

trading hub far southwest of their base: the Crescent. The Crescent had once

been known as New Orleans, before it flooded; the city now consisted of

buildings interconnected across the Crescent lake by boards and bridges. Its

one of the largest trading hubs in the south. Their combined laughter renewed

as the elder and Jenkins walked in.

"So, Franklin and I had gone to the Pirate's Booty, it's one of the two gay bars

down in the Crescent. We didn't find that important fact out until later. Poor

Jenkins had gone in and demanded a room, thinking that he was back at our

hotel." Erik chuckled, "well, in a place like that, you get a gigolo to go with

it. By the time we'd found Jenkins, his _escort_ had gotten half of his clothes

off and was ..."

Erik paused, wide-eyed as he noticed his compatriots in the door. "Oh, hey

there," he said sheepishly. "Glad to see you made it back okay...you find the

stimpacks?" Jenkins glowered at Erik as he fought to get out of Erik's

trench coat. "Yeah, here. Do you warm everyone's hearts with that tale?"

Erik smiled, "no, not everyone. We just needed something to lift the spirits.

It's been a pretty shitty day so far. Don't you agree?"

The elder pushed past Jenkins, only to stand in the middle of the small office

and stare down Rush. He was still seated across from the pups, but looking much

better. He looked up from his lap, causing his vision to dip and swim about. The

clan's elder was not impressed, as she let him know mentally in very stern

German. After his mental toung-lashing, he slowly nodded as he pinned his ears

to his scalp, showing his subordinance. After Rush's mental whipping, the elder

turned her attention to Erik and performed the same on him."Ihre Arbeit ist es,

Ihren Clan zu schutzen. Du und dein Bruder enttauschen mich. Verstehen Sie,

Mich?!" Erik shook his head violently, but was pretty sure he got the gist. "No

ma'am, I don't understand, but I gather that you're not happy." She quickly

snapped her gaze back to Rush and demanded verbally with a sneer, "Sie

uberstezen." He nodded as he averted his eyes from her gaze.

Rush though to Erik, "We've failed our roles as the elder children of the clan

-you and I are both a disappointment. She's clearly unhappy as we've got two

pups, both of which are pretty beat up, not including us." Erik imitated Rush's

averted gaze and spoke softly to the elder. "I'm sorry elder. I have no excuse

for our failures, but we will do much better." She glared at them both and then

nodded slowly, her demeanor softening a bit.

The elder's entire attitude changed as she knelt next to Harmony and Dorian. She

looked at them and smiled as she patted their heads lovingly. "Wie sind meine

Kinder?" Harmony replied verbally to their adoptive mother. "We're okay elder.

Cousins Rush and Erik did their best. Please don't be mad! Their friend Mr.

Jenkins even helped!" The elder nodded at Harmony and then looked over to

Dorian. "Wie ist dein Bein?" He looked down, a bit ashamed. "It hurts,

but...they did do their best, mother." She nodded and patted him softly on the

cheek.

Her soft side quickly dissolved as she spun around to stand face to face with

Jenkins. "Reparieren ihn. Now." Jenkins blinked twice and replied squarely,

"uh, yeah. That's what these are for." He pulled out a pair of stimpacks from

his right-front pocket. "One for you," he pointed at Dorian, "and the other for

you," he pointed the same stimpack at Rush. "Children first," he mumbled aloud

as he knelt down next to Dorian under the critical eye of the elder.

"Now, I'm not going to lie, this is gonna sting, but not for long. Give it ten

minutes, and you'll be able to run around after we get that sling off," Jenkins

said sweetly. Dorian looked up at the elder and whimpered. She nodded at him,

instantly stifling his complaints. "Ready? On three..." Jenkins gently placed a

hand on Ian's trembling leg to steady it as he deftly jabbed the pup's upper

thigh with the stimpack, "one." Dorian cried loudly but tapered off quickly as

his fractured leg deftly healed itself. "You said it was on three...," Ian

whined. "Yeah, sorry about that," Jenkins apologized as he freed Dorian's leg of

its rebar and wire sling.

"Walk around a bit; should be good as new, little man." Dorian looked up at the

elder for permission, she nodded. Harmony helped her brother up to limp around

on his freshly-mended leg. The elder turned her gaze back to Jenkins and said,

"Jetzt Rush." "Right, right. Rush's turn," Jenkins muttered with an underscore

of sarcasm.

Jenkins slid across the floor to Rush and Erik. "He's concussed still?" "Yeah, I

think so," Erik replied. Jenkins nodded as he pried open Rush's eyelids for

inspection. "Any bleeding, Rush? Nose, ears, mouth?" Rush grumbled a "no."

"Good, good. I don't think you'll be needing this stimpack - it looks like a

minor concussion. You can have some painkillers, though." Rush nodded in

agreement after Jenkins finished probing his ears and mouth. Jenkins nabbed is

bag from nearby and rooted through it. "Here," he said as he offered Rush

Buffout and a flask of water.

Rush gobbled the pills and drowned them with water. Jenkins took back the empty

flask and returned it to his bag. He looked over his shoulder to th elder,

"there you go. All better. Mostly." She failed to respond as she was watching

Harmony and Ian playing as if nothing Earth-shattering had happened in the past

hour. They'd found a toy car in the desk and were currently racing it along the

desktop. The elder shook her head and offered Jenkins a hand up. "Danke,

Yenkins." nodded and in turn offered hands to Erik and Rush. Erik declined, and

instead helped Jenkins get Rush up.

He was still a bit unsteady, but Rush was back on his own two feet. The elder

looked at Rush, then her two cubs, Erik, and finally Jenkins, "wir gehen

Zuhause." She didn't wait for any questions or complaints as she waltzed through

the office's door frame. Ian and Harmony quickly followed suit, leaving their

new toy on the desk. Rush fumbled out after them, followed by Erik who was

trying to get his trench coat back on. Jenkins stood alone in the office

momentarily before grabbing the toy car, stashing it in his medical bag, and

following the troupe.


	11. 11: A Meeting Of the Minds

################################################################################

## CHAPTER ELEVEN : A Meeting Of The Minds or Turning Toward The Future ##

################################################################################

Franklin and elder Redding had completed their lunch and were now sorting the

loot they'd found so far. "You got a trick to these?" The elder shook his head

at the holotape that was being waved in his direction. "No, not really. They're

like a Highwayman, can't put 'em down." Franklin glared at his three stacks of

holotapes. "Can't get the damn things to read. Pip-Boy's pissed at 'em." The

elder shrugged and looked at the nearby RobCo terminal. "That should read 'em."

Franklin shrugged and walked over to the terminal and collapsed into the plush

leather chair. "Right then," he mumbled, trying to force a tape into the slot on

the side. "The hell? There's one in here already." He slapped his tape on

top of the terminal and proceeded to mash random keys on the keyboard. The

terminal's green screen slowly faded to life as its internal storage whirred.

"ROBCO INDUSTRIES UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM COPYRIGHT 2075-2077 ROBCO

INDUSTRIES

- Personnel Terminal 7 -

Hello Dr. Hawthorne. You last used this terminal: 38357 days ago.

You have mail available.

You have urgent notices available.

Inbox (14)

Notices (999*)

Access External Storage

_"

Franklin stared blankly at the screen, attempting to make a decision on which

option to choose. He positioned the cursor over "Notices," then quickly decided

against it. Nine hundred and ninety-nine was a bit much. He looked at the inbox

entry again decided against that too, damn things were always a mile long.

Franklin decided on the third option, to load the holotape. Moving down the

cursor and stabbing the return key awarded him with a heavy ***click*** as the

actuator sucked the holotape fully into the drive and began to queue up its

contents.

Ten seconds later, and the terminal was ready for more input:

"External Storage

Project Maia Recording 1

Project Maia Experimental Notes 3

Penny

Back"

"Penny?," he questioned to himself. Selecting the third entry gained him another

***click* **and ***whirr***.

"Penny my dear,

I'm so proud of how well we've been progressing ...CORRUPTION, RECOVERING

...sh and the others should be able to begin their acclimation

proc...CORRUPTION, RECOVERING...General Moseley and his daughter have been

perfect subjects for...CORRUPTION, RECOVERING...heart condition.

Our "side projects" are also well on their way, and after the first

...CORRUPTION, RECOVERING...pairs seem to be best for social development.

Just think, dear, we can finally put our work to good use!

All my love,

- John"

"Damn, not much outta that garbled mess..." Franklin leaned down on his left

elbow and tapped his earlobe in thought. "Let's try this one," he muttered. He

opened the "Recording 1" file. A man in his mid-thirties began speaking with a

warm, southern accent through the terminal's thin-sounding speaker..

"I am Doctor John E. Hawthorne: lead scientist of research and developent, now

head of the Maia project here at the Magnolia Research Station.

As per direction, we will be working in parallel with the Mariposa base in

California to continue and advance the progress on the PVP. Those goons at

West Tek had no idea what they were doing-typical contractors.

Rumor has it that this project we ... _inherited_ from West Tek is far more

insidious that it was originally planned. I hardly believe such droll

accusations and in fact am quite anxious to see how far we can push the

boundaries of the human body. Imagine, with the greatest minds of our time

working on this project, we'll plan out humanity's next evolutionary step!

As soon as our samples and subjects arrive later this month, we'll begin our

first rounds of testing. If I remember correctly, one of my colleagues in the

technology wing mentioned that we're also getting access to one of the new ZAX

mainframes. That should help us tremendously in genetic sequencing as well as

simulations...

This is recording number one for project Maia. Doctor Hawthorne, signing off."

Franklin leaned back in the squeaky chair, "Hey, elder. You ever hear of some

Mariposa place?" "Uh, yeah. Over in California. Army base, if I remember

right. It's where the Master was creating that damnable army of mutants.

Can you believe they've made it all the way down here?" Franklin nodded in

silence, the muttered, "damn greenskins. Always tryin' to eat people or some

shit..."

After pecking around on the terminal, Franklin finally coaxed it to eject the

holotape that was already in it. The terminal slowly coughed up the yellow tape

and was left wanting another. Franklin obliged by shoving his original tape in.

The drive ***clicked*** and ***whirred*** as it tried to queue up the tracks.

"ERROR!

Inserted media is severely corrupted.

Would you like to perform recovery?

(Y/N)

_"

Franklin was getting quickly irritated with the ancient technology. "Yes,

goddammit, why would I shove it in you and not look at it?" He angrily stroked

the "y" and "return" keys.

"Performing recovery of media.

Please wait.

_"

Franklin sat and stared at the blinking prompt as it advanced by five-per-cent

every once in a while. He turned to the elder, who was still leafing through and

scrutinizing the documents from the stained Manila folder. "Anything good?" The

elder paused and looked up from the hand-scrawled noted. "Uh, yeah. Interesting

to say the least. There's a bunch of notes here on the development of the FEV

and how it affects development of various creatures, humans included." Franklin

nodded as he started hollowly at the RobCo terminal as it slowly ticked away its

progress. He nodded off just as the terminal passed thirty-five per-cent.

The crew of six had just made their second of three to get back to the apartment

block. No one had spoken aloud the entire trip. Erik and Rush had been going

back-and-forth across their minds, trying to make sense of the recent events.

Why had their grandfather and creator lost his mind? Why did he try to kill the

cubs? Was he to blame for their elder's wounds? Would they be able to salvage

anything useful from his corpse? Why did their elder only speak German?

Erik paused at the entrance to the office where they fought for their lives, not

a few hours ago. It was charred black except for a few sporadic places and the

epicenter of the blast. That's where Dr. Hawthorne's empty carcass was-a

twisted cylindrical heap of scrap metal and electronics. His brain case had been

shattered, its contents were splattered across the asbestos tile ceiling.

Erik sighed and entered the office. He tread carefully on the scorched concrete

toward the doctor's body. The rest of his companions silently waited outside

ground zero. Erik knelt next to the robot's carcass and began rooting around in

its remaining innards. After a few moments of digging through charred wires and

boards, he found what he was looking for: the robot's black box. That'd have its

most recent RAM contents prior to detonation. Hopefully he could recover

something useful from it, or at the very least have a recording of the last

moments of his grandfather and creator.

Erik shook bits of debris off of the small cubic circuitry and shoved it into

his trench coat pocket. The crew stared at him as he exited the burnt doorway.

"What? Let's go home. We've got work to do, right Rush?" Rush nodded and added,

"must pay respects." Erik glanced at his elder, the pups, then Jenkins and

smiled. "Well, off we go then." They resumed their winding sojourn back to the

complex yet again. Erik constantly turned the black box over in his pocket,

feeling its intricate collection of chips, wires, and pins. "I'm going to figure

out what happened to you," he though to himself.

Jenkins noticed the stern look of concentration on Erik's face, and instead of

bombarding him with questions like he'd planned, he turned them toward the

others. Jenkins jogged up from the back to walk in tandem with Rush, behind the

elder and ahead of Erik and the children.

"Hey big guy," Jenkins whispered. Rush nodded in his direction, "yes?" "Uh, is

everything okay with y'all? It's been rough going today. Should we be in such a

hurry?" Rush shrugged slightly and grumbled, "elder's choice. We obey." Jenkins

sighed, "yeah, I get that. But..." Jenkins grabbed Rush's arm and held him back

behind the rest of the group. "Mrs. Elena's severely wounded. I tried to check

her out when I let her out of that tank earlier." He lowered his voice even

more, "I'm worried about her. We seriously need to check her out. The wounds

are probably more than superficial. Maybe she didn't understand me when I tried

to explain that to her..." Rush scoffed at the latter statement, he did his best

to whisper as Erik turned back to glance at them a good forty feet behind them.

"Elder knows. Speaks English, prefers German."

Erik stopped following the group and turned back in Jenkins and Rush's

direction. Jenkins nonchalantly waved him off. Rush continued his explanation;

"elder will worry about health after we mind the dead." Jenkins shook his head,

"I don't know if that'll be good enough." Rush nodded and grumbled, "Thank you.

Jenkins... Needleman." Jenkins smiled and patted Rush on the back, "no problem,

big guy. Remind me when we get back to work on a name for you." Rush nodded

with a small smile.

The two picked up their pace to rejoin the rest of the group. Erik turned around

and walked backwards to speak with Jenkins. "What was that all about?" Jenkins

shrugged and said, "guy stuff, you wouldn't understand." Erik snorted at Jenkins

and turned to follow the group. As he did, he asked Rush mentally what was going

on. He responded sparsely, "Jenkins is worried about the clan's elder. She's

severely injured, but refused to show it. I think she's worried about things

more important that her health at the moment." Erik acknowledged Rush's

explanation with a quick nod as he turned back around.

The group had made their last turn through the maze just as Rush and Erik

concluded their meeting of the minds. A quick five minute jaunt down the hall

rewarded them with the entrance into the apartment complex.

Franklin grumbled at himself for nodding off and at the terminal for its

pathetic advancements - it was now at sixty-five per-cent. He got up in a

huff and walked outside. "Goin' for a walk," he grumbled to the elder as he

slammed the door behind him. After making his way into the main thoroughfare, he

noticed a few shadowy figures in the distance. "Hoy, brothers?"

Erik and Jenkins both raised an arm to wave back his greeting as they picked

up their pace; the clan followed. Elder Redding stood up and strolled outside

after hearing Franklin's announcement. "Looks like they found 'em, eh?" "Yeah,

'sgood I suppose. More mouths to feed, though," Franklin scoffed. "There always

are, and we're better for it. You know that," the elder replied flatly.

A few short moments later and the entire crew had finally come together; both

elders, Franklin, Jenkins, Erik, Rush, Harmony, and Dorian. They all stood

around and stared at one other in silence until Erik cleared his throat. "Uh,

elder Redding, this is the clan's elder." Elder Redding beamed as he held out a

hand toward the clan's elder. She glanced down at his hand, then back at his

offered hand. Since she was clearly not going to shake hands, he patted himself

on the chest and said, "I'm Marshall Redding. Elder of our clan, the Brotherhood

of Steel, and incidentally Erik's father. It's nice to make your acquaintance.

Mrs..."

The furred elder again looked at him, this time with a faint hint of irritation.

She glanced over to Rush, mentally commanding him to translate. He did as

requested. "Sie ist Marshall Redding, menschlich Altester-Erik's Vater

angenommen. Er sagt, er is glucklick, uns zu treffen." She nodded after Rush had

finished mentally maiming his German. She extended her hand as Elder Redding

had, "Elena, Altere von Magnolia Clan."

Elder Redding's fading smile renewed as he grasped her not-so-slender hand in a

handshake that would hopefully be the beginning of their clans coming together.

The clan's elder, however wasn't in the mood to suffer these strangers in her

home any longer than necessary.

"Konnen Ich Sie helfen, Redding?" Elder Redding tilted his head and smiled

awkwardly, "I'm sorry, but I only speak English and not very well. Rush can

you translate?" He nodded again, quickly regretting the decision to speak.

"Want to know if you need help." "Ah, yes. Well I suppose so. You see, we came

here for two reasons. 1.) to bring Erik home, and 2.) to use the technology in

this base to better the outside world, but now that we've discovered that you

all live here, we'd like to offer you protection in exchange for the use of the

base-we'd never bother you if you like, of course."

Elder Elena slumped a bit and responded in her thick, rough German accent, "We

must mind our dead first. After that, we will discuss." Rush looked over at the

elder, surprised at her English. He couldn't remember her speaking it outside of

their tiny classroom. She noticed this and responded mentally, "My English has

improved, unlike your German, Rush. Don't worry, I will sort this out." Rush

nodded.

Elena paused before properly beginning negotiations with elder Redding. If

she were completely honest with herself, she didn't know what to do. Had her

clan not been nearly completely destroyed, she would have run them out

post-haste...if not worse worse. She wouldn't have to make the hard choice that

could ultimately lead to the end of her clan. She'd worked too many years to

keep things running smoothly. Throughout her twenty-something year stint as

Alpha, she'd managed to keep all twenty or so members in check, fed, educated,

reproducing, and safe. She turned to face Rush directly.

He avoided her gaze, as he didn't want to give her a reason to berate him any

further, being scolded over his terrible German was bad enough. She cleared her

throat with a short growl, forcing him to meet her gaze. It was unlike one that

he'd seen before; it was full of sadness and confusion. He blinked back at her

and tilted his head. "Yes, elder," he asked mentally, "Konnen Ich helfen?" She

nodded once and gave him a small smile. "Ja. Sie Konnen. Sie und Erik will

helfen Mich mit den Toten."

He nodded somberly then turned his gaze back toward the dirtied concrete floor.

He had a pretty good idea of what she'd had planned and he didn't like it. He'd

suffered through so much recently, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to deal with

another death so soon. His elder of most his adolescence and adulthood gently

placed a hand of his cheek and kissed his forehead. "I leibe dich, Beta Rush.

Ich will gehen mit den Toten. Sicherstellen das der Clan wachst stark." She

glanced over at Erik then repeated the same actions to him, leaving him confused

and worried. Erik thought over to Rush, "what the hell's going on?"


	12. 12: Paying Respects

################################################################################

## CHAPTER TWELVE : Paying Respects or I See Dead People ##

################################################################################

While Jenkins and the pups were playing with the ancient toy car that Jenkins

had recovered for them earlier, Franklin stood near the front door to the

apartment he and the elder were in just ten minutes ago. He refused to venture

further, as he was within reach of any weapon he wanted. If the deal looked like

it was going to turn sour, he'd have enough time to nab his new bozar and mow

those mutts down like he should have in the beginning. He regretted not killing

Rush before he had a chance to betray them.

He stared with a scowl at Rush and Elder Elena. He didn't trust them. He didn't

even trust the innocent pups as they laughed heartily with Jenkins' toy and

attention. "Gotta be plannin' something," he thought to himself. "Nothing with

that many teeth could be up to any good. Prolly wanna turn us into Brahmin or

some shit with somethin' they're hidin' in this place. Human cattle." He shook

his head and continued his vigil as he leaned back on the door frame and stroked

the butt of his pistol that hung from his hip.

Elder Elena noticed the strange man staring at them from her dwelling. She

turned to Elder Redding, "Why does he stare?" Elder Redding shook his head and

turned around to meet Franklin's icy gaze. "Oh. Well. His name is Franklin, and

he seems to be pretty unsure of what to think of you and your clan. He should be

harmless." Elder Elena frowned at that and asked, "should be?" Elder Redding

chuckled lightly and continued. "I assure you, he won't cause any problems. He's

just overly protective of us - his clan - as you are with yours. Surely you

understand." She nodded slowly and turned to Rush. She addressed him and Erik

jointly, "I am ready. Let us take care of the fallen."

The duo paused their mental dialog and faced their elder. Erik opened his mouth

and paused momentarily; "Yes ma'am. What do we need to do?" She glanced to Rush

quickly, silently ordering him to explain. He proceeded to do so, "We will help

the elder send the deceased off to their final hunt. She will perform the ritual

for each member. After she's done, we move them to the incinerator and return

them to the world." Erik figured something like that was going to happen but

asked "what about her? After what she said to us earlier, I'm worried.

Something doesn't _feel_ right." Rush ignored the last part and ordered verbally

that they follow orders, as good clansmen should.

Erik looked down and nodded. He glanced over from the concrete under his feet to

Jenkins and the pups who were still racing around their blue wooden car. He

smiled to himself and asked that Jenkins take the pups inside of their

apartment. He followed his request to Jenkins with a whispered one to his

adoptive father. "I'm not sure what's going to happen, but...if something goes

down, take the pups and raise them like you did me."

Elder Redding furrowed his brow but quickly nodded with a smile, "Don't worry

son. Nothing bad will happen. Now hurry, your elder and Rush are getting away."

Rush had followed his elder immediately after she'd turned to leave, affording

Erik a quick moment of private time. He muttered "shit" under his breath then

took off with a jog to catch up with them. A moment later, Jenkins and Elder

Redding were heading toward the apartment with the children in tow while a

fierce Franklin stared daggers at the pups from a distance.

Just as Erik had caught up with them, they'd found the first fallen member of

their clan. Erik recognized what was left of the creature. He was one of the

ones that Erik had met the first night he had been in the facility. Erik looked

up to Rush who simply stared at the dead; he was beginning to suffer from rigor

mortise - his limbs were askew at odd angles, his fingers had curled into his

palms and his face was twisted with agony. Presumably due to the massive, gaping

hole in his chest, due to a plasma rifle. Erik could clearly see the singe

pattern on his camel-colored fur and directly into his chest cavity. Given the

amount of blood and viscera around the guy, he'd been unfortunate enough to have

survived the direct blast, if only for a few extremely painful moments.

Erik could only stare. It wasn't the blood that bothered him. It wasn't even the

fact that the creature had a gaping hole in its chest, it was his face. It was a

kind face that was twisted into more horror than words would adequately be able

to describe. Erik shuddered. The elder noticed his suffering, but said nothing.

She needed to start her rituals.

She thought to Erik, "check your pockets. There should be a knife in your

overcoat." Erik obeyed and searched his pockets, his trusty trench knife was

inside his trench coat, as always, just as the elder had predicted. He pulled it

free and shakily handed it to his elder. She accepted it with her long,

graceful fingers and then proceeded to carve a deep laceration into her opposite

palm. Was quite shocked and would have intervened if not for Rush's growled

warning of "do not interfere."

Erik stood to the elder's left, and Rush to her right. She knelt down next to

her dead family member and placed her bloodied hand on his forehead, smearing

her blood down his face and muzzle, closing his green eyes one last time. After

she had left her mark, she stood up and began to shake drops of blood from her

hand onto the rest of the dead man's body. As she did so, she muttered a

blessing and request to him. She thanked him for his loyalty to the clan, for

his kindness, for his unwavering obedience, and for his life. She also asked

that his spirit watch over her and the clan. She even introduced him to Erik,

oddly enough. She referred to him as the "lost one."

When she had finished, she nodded to Rush who nodded to Erik with a mental note;

"she has cleansed him and thanked him. It is our duty to move him to a better

place before we return him." Erik nodded confusedly and replied, "oh. We have to

move the bodies." Rush nodded as he knelt down and said a silent prayer to the

dead clansman. Rush stood up and nodded to Erik, "move. To center." Erik bent

down and helped Rush move the twisted frame of a werewolf-man to the center of

the complex. They gently laid him down and went back to the elder who was

waiting by the next victim of unforeseen violence.

They performed the same dance eight times in total: the elder lacerated her

hand, said her words, Rush said a prayer, and they moved the body to the center

of town. By the time they were done, there were seven dead clansmen in the

center of town. The last one they went to get made Erik quite ill. The poor

creature had been hit by he guessed was a grenade launcher and was scattered

over a portion of the area. He and Rush were tasked with finding what was left

and returning it to the others. Erik had found an arm and most of its adjoined

hand behind some rubble. Rush had found most of one of the poor being's legs.

Their elder was still talking to was was left of its head. They were unable to

find any bits beyond those, they'd been blasted into a thick red paste on the

walls and floor.

The elder herself helped move the last set of remains to the center of town.

Eight of their twelve had perished - the elder's mate among them. Two had died

due to extra holes being blasted into their squishy bits with plasma-based

weaponry. One had been blown to bits. Another two had been sniped in the

cranium. Two had been crushed by rubble, and the eighth had died protecting the

elder and the children.

Erik stared at the seven and a half clansmen that he would never get to know,

nor they him. As he was jointly admiring and grieving over the dead, the elder

had handed Rush the knife. He accepted it unenthusiastically. Elder Elena nodded

to him and laid down next to her mate on the concrete floor, taking his twisted

claw of a hand in hers. Erik found this all very strange. Rush knelt down next

to her as she began to shakily recite the kind words she had given to the dead

to herself. Erik went wide-eyed as he figured out what was fixing to happen -

she had to die for Rush to take over as Alpha. Just as Rush had finished his

kind words and the elder thanked Erik for returning to them, Erik tackled Rush

who was millimeters away from plunging the bloodied trench knife into her

still-beating heart. "What the hell are you doing," he screamed. Rush replied

in a deafening war cry of his own as he attempted to throw the squirming human

off of him so he could perform his duties as beta-soon-to-be-alpha. The two

rolled around on the ground as Erik fought to pry his knife from Rush's

determined hands.

"Let. Go," Erik struggled to yell. Rush only snarled in reply. Erik didn't care,

he wouldn't let Elder Redding do something like his, nor would he let her. Erik

and Rush tumbled over and over one another for a few minutes more before one of

the Brotherhood came to see what the fuss was about. Jenkins heard Rush's cry

and was gone like lightning. Erik was on his back again when he kicked Rush in

the gut and knocked the wind out of him. While he was gasping for air, Erik

wrangled the knife away from him. Jenkins showed up at that moment, panting from

the sprint.

"What the hell's goin' on here? Why's your knife bloody? Were you two fighting?

Are you hurt?" Jenkins would've continued if Rush hadn't regained his breath and

was lunging after Erik again. "Knife! Must finish!" Jenkins stepped out of the

way and pulled his pistol from its holster. The two quarreling brothers ignored

his threat of shooting them. Erik and Rush again rolled around with one another,

Erik taking a swing at Rush's muzzle. Jenkins threatened them a second time. A

second time, he was ignored. Jenkins was getting frustrated and wanted answers,

so he decided to act instead. He sighted up his pistol and shot a warning shot

at the two wrestling men, nearly missing Erik's hip. They paused momentarily and

continued their struggle. "Oh, for fuck's sake!" Jenkins lamented as he sighted

his pistol again and shot in their direction a second time. Unfortunately, he

though he'd grazed one of the two of them. He wasn't sure who, as they were both

busy howling threats at one another.

After they'd rolled wrestled their way back toward Jenkins, he decided to jump

on top and hold the pistol to Rush's right temple while holding Erik by the

neck. "HOLD STILL GOD DAMN IT!" Jenkins screamed over the two men. They both

took this threat more seriously. Erik and Rush both went board stiff and stared

at Jenkins with full attention and wide eyes. "Good. I'm glad I have your

attention," Jenkins said with a brisk tone. "Now. Does anyone wanna tell me

what the fuck you two are fighting for, or do I need to install some new..., "

he paused and poked Rush gently in the temple with his 10mm pistol a few times,

"hardware?"

Neither Erik or Rush said anything but glanced at one another then Jenkins. The

three men stared at each other in silence for a good minute before the elder

behind them cleared her throat. "Medic. Come here." Jenkins grabbed the knife

from Erik, got off of Rush, and walked over to the elder who was calmly lying

next to her dead mate. She blinked up at him as he knelt next to her. "Thank

you. Now, please kill me." Jenkins shook his head in shock. "What?! No. I'm no

Doctor Kevorkian. Unless you've got some sort of cancer, we can fix whatever's

wrong with you." She smiled and gently shook her head. "Can't fix clan. We are

all dead." Erik and Rush untangled themselves and joined Jenkins at the elder's

side.

"If you say so, but I see at least two here that are alive, and I know where two

more are. They all seem pretty alive to me...," he glanced across the elder at

Erik and Rush, "unless I need to shoot one of these idiots." She ignored

Jenkins' threat and instead turned her head to the left where Rush and Erik

were. "Erik. You must take Rush's place and he mine. This is how it has been and

must be."

Erik shook his head violently in protest. "No! That's the stupidest thing I've

ever heard. There's no reason for you to die! You have two pups to raise, Rush

needs you. I need you. How are we supposed to carry on traditions if we don't

know what they are? Who will teach the children the clan's culture?" He paused

as he took a shaky breath, "who...Who will teach me about...me? I don't know

anything about my parents, or who I was supposed to be. I don't anything about

the clan and next to nothing about Rush. I can't learn anything if you're dead."

Erik took her bloodied hand at this point and spread some of her blood on his

forehead. "I...I won't let you die. It would mean that both Rush and I have

failed in our duties...I think." She smiled and patted him on the head, smearing

a bit more blood on him.

"Perhaps you are right, Erik. You and Rush are not ready to lead the clan. You

both have much growing to do. Together and as men in your own right." The elder

stopped to look over at her mate and whispered, "I will join you one day. Today

is not that day." She kissed his cheek and sat up. "I will continue as Alpha of

the clan. Rush, you are relieved of your duty as Beta."

Rush fell over when she said that. He thought to her in panic, "Elder! I know

I've not been a very good Beta, but I can do better, I promise! I'm sorry! What

can I do?! You can't..." She replied aloud so that Erik and Jenkins could hear;

"It is time you grew up Rush. You've been separated from your brother for far

too long, it has done damage to you both. Neither of you are complete without

one another." She paused and smiled as she patted her mate's twisted, grotesque

hand. "We were designed to be with others - to care and love one another. We

were designed in pairs. Some were siblings, some were destined to be mates,

others, life-long friends."

Rush stared at her in desperation. "But, elder," he grumbled. "No!" She growled

back. "You will go with your brother. You two must grow together. The pups and I

will stay here with the grace of the Brotherhood. Now, help me up. We have a job

to finish and I need to work out the details of our arrangement with our new

friends."

Jenkins extended a hand to help her up, as did Erik. Rush stayed on the ground

with his fallen brethren, silently wishing he was one of them. The elder thanked

Jenkins for his intervention and hugged him. She let him go and hugged Erik as

well. As she did, she thought to him, "take care of your older brother. He needs

you now more than ever." He nodded as she let him go. She looked down at Rush,

"Come now. This is no way to honor the dead. Get up and help us get them on

their way." Rush nodded and stood up at her behest, although he wasn't in any

hurry.

A depressed Rush and bruised Erik began to move the dead from the center of the

town to the Northern side, near the cargo elevator. Jenkins had gone back to

explain what had transpired. "In here," the elder motioned. There was a large

metal door with accompanying sign that read "MEDICAL WASTE ONLY." Erik scowled

at the sign and thought, "they look like more than just waste to me. I guess

it's not like they have room to bury their dead like we do..." The elder

depressed a large red button nearby, causing the door to slide up, revealing a

hatch with a conveyor belt that lead to a very hot oven. "They will be cremated

then their ashes will be used to feed our crops. We continue to server our clan,

even after death."

As they loaded each mangled body into the chute, the elder mentioned a bit about

them.

The fist to go was her mate, Leopold, or Leo for short. It was for him that she

learned German. He was the prodigy of a pair of German scientists that defected

to America prior to the great war. He was also one of the best microbiologists

she'd ever seen-he was second only to Doctor Hawthorne. He may have looked

like a werewolf, but he had the grace and skill of a Harvard-schooled scientist.

She kissed him one last time on the cheek as they did their best to gently load

him into the chute.

The next was the most disfigured one of them all; the one that had been blown

up. The elder held the corpse's head in her hands and kissed its forehead with a

sigh. It was her only child. Her daughter, Sophia. The elder had hoped that she

and Rush would grow to love together and have a bunch of beautiful pups. Sadly,

they never took a liking to one another. She turned out to be disinterested in

males. She and Rush argued quit often about various things like the outside

world and the general direction the clan should take in the future. She was fine

with keeping them isolated from the outside, Rush argued that they would

eventually die out without introducing new genetics into the clan.

The third and fourth were found together, crushed under the rubble of an

explosion caused by the Enclave. One of the gas lines to the complex had been

ruptured by the Enclave's attack, causing large concrete slabs and debris to

rain down. They were still embraced, even in death. First to go was Benjamin,

Rush's contemporary. They were of the same age and had grown up together. They

weren't terribly close. Unlike Rush, he was quite jovial and outgoing. In fact,

Erik reminded him of Benjamin a lot. The fourth was Benjamin's mate, Marie. Rush

couldn't think of one bad thing she'd ever done. She worked daily with the Alpha

to educate the clan. The alpha focused on science and mathematics while Marie

focused more on humanities. Rush was sad to see her go, she'd become a close

friend of his over the years-the only one he really had.

The fifth and sixth had both been sniped by one of the enclave soldiers. The

first of the two was a lean, young man. Erik figured he was no more than sixteen

or so. The elder looked him over and shook her head, "gone too soon. Mikael, you

were going to make Dr. Hawthorne very proud." He, along with Harmony and Dorian,

were the latest generation of their clan. Dr. Hawthorne had been tweaking their

genetics since he finished up Rush and Erik. They were just as smart as those

two, but had developed to be better integratable into human society.

The second of the sniper victims was Alto, the father of Dorian and Harmony, and

Rush and Erik's uncle. Technically, he was a distant cousin, genetics-wise. He

was in charge of the hydroponics garden that has fed the clan for a few decades

now. Alto was also their doctor, although he was rarely needed outside of

typical playground injuries and pregnancies. Rush was sad to see him go, he was

always a kindhearted, gentle man. Rush spent much of his childhood and early

adolescence with him in the quiet gardens, learning the intricacies of feeding a

small army of carnivores only with vegetables and how to breed stronger,

healthier plants and clansmen.

The seventh victim had perished the same as the first - a plasma rifle blast to

the gut. Erik thought it was odd that she was one of the only ones with

defensive wounds. Erik actually smiled when he saw her, instantly knowing that

she had fought until the end. She was Alto's mate and the alpha's sister,

Alexis. As fierce as the alpha was, she was doubly so. She was in charge of

teaching the clan to defend themselves and how to use what weapons were

available. Unfortunately, she'd been unable to lately as she was preparing for

the early stages of pregnancy. She was due to introduce a new sibling for Dorian

and Harmony in eight months or so. That wouldn't happen now. The elder kissed

her forehead and gently rested a hand on what was left of her abdomen-the hole

through it didn't help.

The last victim of the Enclave's unannounced attack was a young female, about

Rush's age, maybe a hair less. The elder looked up from her to Erik and said,

"Young one. This is who I'd hoped you mate one day. In fact, you remind me much

of her - Amanda. She was headstrong and righteous, much like you. She had a

second sense of what was right and wrong. She died protecting me and the pups."

The elder kissed her forehead and patted her cheek with a smile, "you would've

liked her." Rush nodded at and greed with the elder's words. "Kind, gentle," he

grumbled sadly. She would've made a great sister and an even better mate he

thought.

After they had loaded the last body onto the conveyor, the elder shut the door

and pressed the red button again. A motor somewhere groaned into service. Jets

could be heard, turning the dead into ashes as the trio walked away toward the

elder's apartment. The three walked back in silence, reflecting on the lost.

Erik, however was filled with just as many questions about the clan as he felt

grief. If there were only twelve before he got here, how many were around when

he and Rush were born? How'd they die so quickly? None of the deceased were old

enough to be either of his parents, was it possible that they still alive

somewhere?


	13. 13: Collaboration

################################################################################

## CHAPTER THIRTEEN : Collaboration or New Winds Blow ##

################################################################################

Erik kept these questions to himself for now, as they were nearing the elder's

apartment. Elder Redding stepped out from the dark apartment into the artificial

sunshine to greet the crew upon their arrival. No one spoke until Elder Elena

walked in past Elder Redding's outstretched hand and was disappointed to see her

home in complete disarray; chairs were out-of-place, dirty dishes were piled in

the sink, various cabinets and containers stood open. "Do you infiltrate

everyone's home and turn it upside down," she asked aloud to no one in

particular as the screen door slammed clumsily behind her. Elder Redding simply

smiled to himself, allowed himself back in and pulled a chair out for her at the

small table. She accepted the seat as they the others filed in behind her and

milled around the apartment. Erik and Rush took residence on the dirtied white

couch, Jenkins sat in the green leather chair facing the entrance, the pups were

in their room still playing with the car Jenkins gave them, and Franklin got the

hell out of there all together.

Elder Redding started their negotiations with an apology, "I'm terribly sorry

for barging into your home, ma'am. We had no idea that this facility was

occupied by civilians or anyone else for that matter. We'd only re-discovered it

a few weeks ago when Erik was scouting around down here, looking for some

long-lost technology or run-down facility we could turn into a trading post or

outpost of sorts. After I was here twenty years ago, the Brotherhood decided it

wouldn't be worth the manpower and resources to occupy it as we were just really

getting a foothold where we're setup now." "We'll make sure it's in order before

we leave, you have my word," he concluded.

She nodded. "That's nice, but what do you want from us," she asked flatly. Elder

Redding replied, "well, we originally came here to find Erik. We weren't getting

regular reports from him like we normally do. Of course, we rushed in after

we got his distress call during the Enclave attack. Once we arrived, saw

that the Enclave were dealt with, and got everyone patched up, we dug around and

found some articles that lead us to believe there are copious amounts of data and

experiments from the pre-war scientists here that we could use to make the

outside world much better." He paused and continued, "frankly ma'am, you've got

a utopia down here, compared to what the rest of the world has: you have

shelter, heating and cooling as you like it, plumbing with clean, pure water,

proper sanitation, obviously great education, and pre-war knowledge and

technology that would be worth more than its weight in bottle caps. We would

like to leverage that information to try to improve our world above."

Elder Elena slouched back in her chair as her fur started to rise. She didn't

like the way this sounded and was deathly afraid of the worst. She shook her

head fervently, "No. You will not take this facility. It is our home and we will

defend it as our brethren have for the past three generations. I'll lay down my

life before you will take it away from us. There are things that have taken

place here that should never see the light of day. In the wrong hands, they

could cause further destruction than what we have seen in our time." Elder

Redding was taken aback by her accusations. "Ma'am, respectfully, we don't want

to _take it from you_. We couldn't do that to you and your family, especially

after what's happened recently. It would be inhumane of me to even _suggest_

something like that. If you allow it, we'd just want to make copies of the

research the scientists were doing, something we can use to help us provide

cleaner water and food to the people in the wasteland. Above all else, we don't

want to run you out of your own home." He paused again, "in fact, I was hoping

to extend an olive branch of sorts. Let us help you, help us. We can provide

you with extra supplies and materials for yourself and the children, even

station some people here to stave off any further Enclave attacks. Anything you

need. Maybe in the future, after we have grown to trust each other more, we

could talk about letting the Brotherhood rent a floor or two above you to

establish a presence in this area."

Both elders sat silently at the table for what seemed to be hours, churning

thoughts over in their heads. In fact, the entire apartment was dead silent with

an occasional punctuation of laughing children in the back. Jenkins had nodded

off in the comfortable, well-worn chair and Erik and Rush were still sitting in

silence, fixated at the table with tired, red, puffy eyes rather than the

important conversation that would determine their futures above it.

Erik and Rush were just nodding off when their furred elder finally responded.

"Yes, Elder Redding. I believe we can come to an agreement. You and your charges

will be free to search the facility as you see fit. Copy what you need, but you

will leave the originals here at the station. I will review what you decide is

worth taking with you. There will be a few more conditions on my part, however."

Elder Redding leaned forward, giving her his undivided attention. "Yes? What

can we do for you?" She sighed and said, "I want you to take Rush with you,"

then stopped for a moment, gathering her thoughts.

"I can't ask you to leave Erik here, he seems to have an important role in your

clan and I won't have he and Rush split up. They have been apart for far too

long as it is. I'm afraid there may have been permanent damage between them."

Elder Redding nodded. "I'm sure they'd appreciate that, as do I," he said, "but

what will you do without him? Surely he provides some additional protection to

the clan? Considering..." She ignored that question-as much as she disliked

Rush, she still loved him and didn't really want to think about his leaving the

clan.

After some more thought, Elder Redding decided to wrap things up. "As a final

condition, since you're entrusting Rush with us and seem to be severely

short-handed now, I'd like to schedule supply trips down here. We'd bring you

supplies every month or two as you deem fit. Ideally, I'd like to have Jenkins

bring them. I'm sure he'd like to bring the kids something now and again too.

They seem to like him. Of course, he'd probably want to do checkups on all of

you as well." The elder chuckled to himself with a smile, "he's overly

protective of his patients. Especially children."

Elder Elena pushed her chair back to make room for herself, "fine, fine. Yes, I

agree. You will aid us when necessary and Jenkins will visit and keep us

healthy. I too have one last request. Rush and Erik must visit at minimum once a

year-Rush hasn't missed a birthday for the children yet. That and I'm sure I

will miss our pointless arguments eventually." Elder Redding smiled and said,

"I wouldn't have it any other way, ma'am. I'll do my best to ensure the safety

of you and your family as best I can. As far as I'm concerned, Rush, being

Erik's blood, is as good as my son. I hope you feel the same about Erik." She

nodded and replied, "yes. He was taken, er...given away long ago. I am glad to

see him in such good health. I have often wondered where and how he was."

After their final thoughts on their children, they had concluded their

negotiations, stood up, and shook hands, as civilized men and modern-day

werewolves are wont to do. They both looked around, curious about silence in the

apartment, and saw that their compatriots were all asleep. Jenkins was gently

snoring in the chair, Erik and Rush had slumped over on each other's shoulders

and the children had climbed up next to them, Harmony had a slightly soiled

teddy bear with one eye and Dorian was clutching the blue car Jenkins had gifted

them. They were all fast asleep.

For the first time in what seemed to be a lifetime, Elder Elena proudly presided

over the remnants of her once-great pack and smiled as Rush and Erik both began

gently snoring in unison. Although her pack was greatly reduced in numbers,

they were quite resilient. They would all one day be what the world above

needed, or so she was told long ago and deeply believed.

Elder Redding was thinking something along the same lines as he gently patted

Elena on the shoulder. "Tough crew you've raised, ma'am." She nodded in

response, silently thanking him. "You seem to have done respectably with Erik as

well. He appears to be just as caring and intelligent as his brother. I wonder

if he is half as hard-headed?" Redding chuckled in response, "Like you wouldn't

believe. Would you care for a walk? I'd like to learn more about you and your

clan, if you don't mind, ma'am. I never got so much as a hint from the doctor

that your people existed." She nodded again as they exited through the screen

door, pleased that he's at least half as civilized as they were. She thought to

herself, "it certainly couldn't hurt. It'd be nice to get a first-hand account

of the world above, I haven't been up top for over twenty years now."

Franklin, being the partially racist and monstrosity-fearing man he was, was the

only person in the facility who was unhappy with the current situation. He was

still in disbelief that Elder Redding would put the Brotherhood in so much

danger by bringing that behemoth Rush back home with them. On top of that, what

the fuck did he think he was doing, paling around with _their_ elder?! It was

obvious to Franklin, that the best course of action would be to put a bullet in

each of their furry damn heads, preferably teeth first, and burn this pre-war

hellhole to the ground with a large explosion of some sort. Or at least thats

what he, the six-pack of flat beer he'd found, and his trusty flask thought.

With all of the alcohol in his system, he felt pretty good-in an awful sort of

way. He wasn't impressed with the impending changes this corroboration between

the clan and the Brotherhood would bring. "What's next," he thought, "we're

gonna start hugging super mutants and kissing ghouls and petting deathclaws

and...what. Fucking robots?" He laughed aloud to himself at the last part, no

way that could would work out well-too many sharp bits. Or could it?

Franklin struggled momentarily, but eventually manged to get his mind back on

its wobbly, alcohol-fueled track after getting derailed by the imagery and

complications of human-robot sex.

Okay, sure. The fuzzballs were just almost completely obliterated-and would've

been if the Enclave knew how the hell to kill something properly-but he _knew_

damn good and well they were hiding something. No one in the wastes was this

intelligent and well-mannered without hiding some terrible secret; just like

those people that turned out to be cannibals. They'd had everyone duped,too.

Maybe those furry abominations were going to use Erik and the rest of them as

livestock? He trailed off at the thought of being used as a human stud-maybe

it wouldn't be so bad so long as they got some females. He had no intention of

becoming a faggot for these monsters or anyone else...

His conscience, nestled in the tiny, sensible portion of his brain attempted to

reign him back in at this point, "You're just paranoid and insecure due to the

attacks by the deathclaws that lead to my death. It's making it hard for you to

adjust-to let anyone close to you. Just think, this week you discovered a new

sub-species of humans and found a like-new bozar! Not to mention that one of

your only friends in this world is a genetic experiment of the same strain that

spawned Rush, not an orphan like we all thought, and _he's_ taking the news much

better than you are!"

The tiny, warm, intelligent, voice in his head that sounded like his dead

brother was getting quieter and quieter with each swig of skunky beer that

Franklin chased down with moonshine. "You just miss your me. Do you still think

it should've been you instead of me that died that day? You've gotta get

over..." Franklin cut it off as he quickly polished off the beer in his hand,

let it drop to the deck with a *clank* and chased it with a shot of searing

moonshine. He popped open another flat beer. "Why're you jealous of Erik? Is it

because he found what you lost? Or is it that you're afraid that he'll replace

you with Rush?" the tiny voice cried in question. Gulp, swig. "You know you like

Rush and can't stand it. Is it because he reminds you of me-a big, protective

brother. He's giant teddy bear for fuck's sake, Frank. I'd bet you two could be

great friends." Gulp, gulp, gulp, swig, swig. Another beer down and now his

flask was dry. "Damnit," Franklin slurred as he threw the fifth bottle in the

general direction of the other four emptied ones near him. He'd sincerely hoped

that damn tiny voice in his head would finally drown. That would make him

happier than anything in the world. "I love you, little brother. Keep trying to

better yours...," it faded as it finally sank into the depths of his

alcohol-soaked brain.

As he watched from the deck of a second floor apartment, the elders' walk made

him intensely jealous. Or maybe he was being overprotective of the only man who

was nice enough in the wasteland to give him a reason to live now that his

brother was gone. Or it was jealousy? It was definitely probably maybe

jealously. He watched the two stroll leisurely through the debris-littered

complex as if it were just a beautiful Spring day. They legitimately seemed to

be getting along, they were visibly more relaxed with one another, Elder Redding

threw an arm over her shoulders...they were getting touchy-feely. She just

slipped a hand of slender fingers into the codpiece of his armor while his elder

was going in for a double handful of boobs! Or that was his imagination. He

blinked the false, awkward images out of his eyes and again saw two diplomatic

and well-postured beings exchanging their cultures in a non-flirtatious way. No

goosing going on there. At that point, Franklin decided to return to the

apartment he was borrowing and pass out on the dusty bed after he'd kicked the

remnants of a long-dead something out of it. He'd catch up with the rest of

them in the morning, or afternoon, or whatever it would be in about ten hours

from now. Maybe he could talk some sense into them then.


End file.
